Fallout Equestria: Old World Renegades

Chapter 2: Directions

I woke up in the dead of night. The cave I was hiding out in was bathed in a dark shade of blue from the cave entrance. The only other light coming from the Pip-buck I still had on my leg. I checked the clock. It was three in the morning.

I would have gone back to sleep but it was like I was snapped wide awake and couldn’t drift back no matter how hard I tried. A problem I’ve had since I was a filly.

I tried moving my leg and was met with surprisingly little pain compared to several hours ago. I pulled myself up and sat on my rump peering out the cave entrance from behind the pony sized rock I had slept behind. Now that I look back on that sleeping against a rock probably didn’t do me any favors. All that was outside was forest, shrub… and the sound of a tuba?

I pulled up the Pip-bucks E.F.S and saw that there was somepony or something outside off to the right of the cave entrance.

I immediately sprang to all fours and rushed out of the cave. My legs actually cooperating with me this time. I veered off to the right and was met by a hovering spherical robot. I had majored in robotics at the university and knew what it was.

“Spritebot, combat model A-1, mass produced model equipped with minor armament and thin four centimeter composite armor, power outlet basic spark battery” I said out loud as I looked over the bot.

“That’s impressive!” the hovering spritebot replied startling the living crap out of me as I jumped about a meter away from the thing.

“Oh… sorry were you expecting something different to happen?” it asked as I stood with a stunned look on my face.

“Well no. it’s just the textbooks never said anything about the A-1’s having their own artificial intelligence” I replied calming a little.

“I’m not the spritebot. I’m just broadcasting myself through it to talk to you.” It shot back.

I stood there a few seconds before replying “that was going to be my second guess” calming down slightly more “Who is it that I am speaking with then?”

"Call me Watcher" it replied as i walked slowly towards it. "What’s a smart pony like you doing way out here?"

I told him what happened which led to an awkward silence of about fifteen seconds or so.

“So you have no idea why your even here?” it asked

“No! I have no idea why or how I ended up here. All I know is that my name is Skylight.” I replied.

“OK calm down Skylight. I don’t see any way the Enclave will accept you back so like it or not you’re stuck down here.” It shot back. Oh sure just rub it in while you’re at it.

I let that sink in a little… then I stopped pacing. How long had I been doing that?

“Well then I need a direction to go in so I can start sorting this mess out.”

“Well… you could fly.” it offered in an almost sarcastic tone.

“My wing’s broken.” I said as I pointed at my horribly mangled wing.

The spritebot paused for a while before replying. “Ok then the fastest way out of the forest would be to go south west. Be glad you’re only about a mile into the place. Do you have a weapon?”

“I have a knife.” I offered.

“Better than nothing I suppose. Just try not to do anything that may get you killed. Everfree forest isn’t exactly the safest place in the wasteland. “

The voice cut out and the music resumed as the bot hovered away.

“OK not a perfect direction to go off of… but its progress” I said aloud to myself as I watched it fly off. As it went out of sight I trotted back to the cave to gather the knife and other contents of the saddlebag I found earlier and set out on this quest… if you could call it that.

*           *           *

My walk out of the forest started out pleasant. If you consider every ten steps ducking behind the nearest rock because of a noise off in the distance the least bit pleasant.

Regardless along with the knife I was also now carrying a large stick to go with it. Not the most threatening sight but I’m off to a good start... At least I hope I’m off to a good start.

I decided to keep the Pip-buck because… honestly I saw no reason to get rid of it. It was amazingly useful, it came with the E.F.S and S.A.T.S, and since it had its Velcro band I would actually be able to take it off if I needed to. Not to mention it was almost unbreakable so I could use it as a blunt weapon.

Since I did have an E.F.S I decided to actually use it. I switched it on and to my relief and minor embarrassment nothing was around. So I spent the past half hour cowering in fear for nothing... Yeah I was walking normally now.

I only made it fifteen more seconds when something shot past my head. I looked over to the right and spotted some sort of plant resembling a flytrap I had seen in my biology textbook. Only this one was bigger, had razor sharp teeth, and was spitting balls of slime at me.

It spit at me again as I ducked behind the nearest rock. I glanced over to see the slime hit a tree which it was now dissolving. I didn’t have any effective weapons so I threw the stick at it. It smacked into the plant and sort of disoriented it giving me time to start running in the opposite direction. By the time it could spit another ball of acid at me I was already out of sight but I kept running anyway.

*              *              *

I’m not entirely sure how far I ran when I tripped on a rock and landed right on my face. As if I didn’t have enough scratches as it is. I had my eyes clenched shut as I pulled my head up to rub my muzzle. I opened my eyes and was faced with a skull making me jump back farther than I did with the Spritebot. I looked at it for a while before I finally stopped shaking.

It wasn’t just a skull it was an entire skeleton. It was laying slumped over a rock and had a piece of paper nudged under its leg bone. I didn’t want to touch it but by Celestia I wanted to know what was on that paper. I picked up a stick and forced it out to a point I was comfortable picking it up. The note was barely legible after the years of deterioration but I was able to barely make it out.

Sorry everypony but I can’t stand it anymore. Since Caramel was listed as killed in action I’ve never been able to get past it. So I’m ending my life. Goodbye.

WW

It brought tears to my eyes. I found it weird I was crying over somepony I never knew but here I was tearing up over somepony named WW. I wiped my eyes and put the note in my bag.

Looking over the skeleton revealed it to be that of a pegasus… not sure how I felt about that. Buried under the leg was what looked like a pistol of sorts which I carefully extracted with the stick as I did with the note. It was old… REALLY old. I wasn’t even sure if it would fire. Well it probably would but I could guarantee firing it would cause the 10MM round to backfire and cause the entire gun to explode in my mouth. I just had my teeth cleaned and I would really rather avoid getting dentures… if I could find any.

Since I was lacking any firearms of my own I stashed the pistol in my bag. Maybe if I was lucky I could intimidate somepony with it without revealing that it may do more harm to me than them. Ooh there’s a disturbing thought right there!

*        *        *

So I was walking again. Just me alone with my thoughts… along with the countless wild animals that would like nothing more than to jump out of nowhere and eat me but I tried not to think about death right now. Oh and also my run-ins with the blue weeds that seems to be everywhere. I knew enough to avoid it and if I couldn’t my knife seemed to do the job.

Speaking of my knife… I was using it as a makeshift mirror again. My face wasn’t all that bad as I had feared. In fact it only had a few minor cuts and bruises. If I could just brush my mane I would look half way descent in terms of my face. The rest of me would need a thorough wash down to get the blood out of my hide. I knew I probably shouldn’t be worrying about how I looked but it was one of the few things keeping me going at this point.

That and the fact I’m hearing constant noises coming from the more dense brush around me. Watcher said I was only about a mile into the forest but it sure didn’t feel like I was. I suppose it didn’t help that I was stopping every ten feet to look around when even the tiniest noise came out of nowhere. I’d start walking normally but last time I tried that I was attacked by a plant.

Finally a came to a road heading south west and about two minutes later I was out of the forest. I looked at the Pip-buck clock again. It was going on five in the morning. I couldn’t help hitting myself for over the matter. How in Equestria did it take me an hour and forty five minutes to walk one mile? Sure the plants, animals, and just about every other scary thing within a fifty yard radius were slowing me down by all the noise but COME ON! I have 9.1 wingpower and no way of taking advantage of it. Well maybe I could slap somepony with my good wing and it would hurt a lot but that won’t do me any favors. I was top of my class in flight camp… you know it’s funny how I remembered that but I couldn’t remember much else.

My attention was suddenly drawn to the sound of gunfire off the side of the road. It didn’t sound too far away and curiosity always got the better of me. And I’m not saying that it got me hurt a lot… in fact more often than not it did.

*            *            *

When I got within sight of whoever was shooting I was already seeing the slightest hints of morning. It was still dark though. I was about twenty feet behind two ponies who were using a rock as cover when I ducked behind a tree… if you could call this shriveled black thing a tree.

I peeked out to see the two ponies that were both earth ponies, one of which had a battle saddle mounted with a rifle, milky green coat, and crimson mane. The other had some sort of SMG in his mouth, dark brown coat, and a shaved head. Behind the rock was another rock with another pony scrunched behind it. All I could make out was a blue mane.

When the pony popped up to take a shot at the two I was able to make out that it was a unicorn mare with a tan hide.

So now I have some options… I could wait for them to sort this out on their own, risk blowing my teeth to bits by trying to shoot the unicorn with the rusty pistol I have, try to take out the two trying to no doubt kill said mare, or I could walk away.

So I went with the best option that would sort out the problem without extorting too much effort and risk but at the same time not make me look like a coward and decided to try taking out the two earth ponies. This led to my next problem which was how to go about doing that. I had my knife but I doubt I could take them both out fast enough with it. But I also had this gun which still may or may not explode if I fire it. Well I thought about that gun for a second. How it was rusted over, covered in dirt, and the rough jagged handle that may or may not… hello idea!

*        *       *

I snuck out from behind the tree with the pistols gun barrel in my mouth and managing to grip the knife with my not broken wing. What I was doing may or may not have been completely stupid but I didn’t see a whole lot of options out in front of me.

I managed to get right behind the two ponies who were still fixed ahead at the unicorn who they had pinned down. I went up behind the one with the SMG and bashed the back of his head with the butt of the gun. It must have done enough damage because he collapsed into a heap in front of me unconscious. For a moment it was satisfying and I was able to breathe a small sigh of relief. At least until his partner took notice and was turning around to focus on me.

My instincts kicked in again and I threw the knife at him. It struck him in the leg causing him to stagger for a second while I dived for the SMG on the ground. By the time I had it in my mouth he already had a shot lined up on me.

I braced myself for him to shoot me when suddenly everything just stopped. Everything round me stopped in time and I found myself staring directly at the earth pony in front of me. Looking at his head left it obscured by some sort of green highlight and a small box next to it that said 88%. It took me a second to realize that I was in S.A.T.S mode which made me want to smack myself for not figuring that out sooner. Yeah I knew how to use S.A.T.S I just never had to until now.

I targeted his head and fired a off short burst from the SMG which impacted into his skull sending him down into a heap.

It took a second for S.A.T.S to set everything back so I could move again. When it did everything was silent. I peeked over the rock to see the unicorn mare’s head just barely sticking out the top. I walked over slowly and in that time she still didn’t move from behind the rock. I was right in front of it when I decided to try talking to her.

“Hey… you alright there?” I asked only to be met with her popping up and shoving a magically gripped pistol right to my forehead and her blue eyes filled with anger as if she was staring right into my soul as we made eye contact.

“Who the hell are you?” she asked slowly with a hint of anger in her voice. The pistol still wrapped in her magic grip pressed hard against my forehead.

You know… maybe it would have been smarter to try asking her that from a bit of a distance…

Footnote:  Level up!

New Perk Added:  Tinkerer- you have a knack for fiddling with all things technology and figuring out what makes them tick.

((Authors note: Wow it’s been what eight months? Sorry about the massive hiatus on this story everyone! SkylightPegasus left the project and dumped everything in my hands. I’m only now getting around to this because I’ve had a number of things going on myself and haven’t found the time to write this. Now that I am its unexpected that there will be another hiatus like that. Sorry for the wait.))