Fallout: Equestria

Forgotten Light

Level 10:Expect the unexpected

Love.

A thing so elusive, yet ever present in life. Love is a thing that drives many Ponies, Zebras, Griffons, and so many other species and races to do what they do. Love for your hometown, love for your country, love for your world, or the strongest of all, true love. The kind that is the hardest to find, but when you find it, it turns out to mean more to you than anything else in the world. That was the kind of love I now felt for Cloudy Melody.

After a time of just looking out at the ruins of Golden Wing City below us, Cloudy Melody broke the silence. "Thank you Silvie, thank you for everything you've done for everypony. Even before we went into stasis, you were helping ponies. I first started to fall for you when you rescued me and the other ponies from the battlefield."

I blushed a bit at that, having little memory of the events before I woke up in that Stable room. I did remember that day thanks to Cloudy Melody though. "To be honest, if it weren't for the singing, we never would have found you until it was too late. You were the real hero that day Melly." I said in response.

She looked to me with a small smile and said "I guess you're right, but I really feel the real hero that day was you. You're the one that led the team that brought us back to safety." She nuzzled back up against me after saying that.

___---POV change, Littlewings---___

Iria and I were down on the Market Level still after having finished shopping for supplies, we even managed to get some extra supplies. The ponies there were still celebrating the return of DJ Memory, and the removal of the Survivors of The Vault. Though the battle was over there were still dead bodies from the Survivors of The Vault littering the floor of that level.

"You think it will always be this easy Littlewings?" Iria asked me.

"No, but I do think it's worth it." I replied with a smile "Besides, even if they were once ponies, their monsters now." I said as we passed a burning pile of the transformation Survivors of The Vault.

"I guess you're right, and everypony does look happy now" Iria said looking at the other ponies in the area.

"Enjoying yourselves?" somepony said behind us, when we turned we saw it was Sonar Shield.

"Yeah, things got really festive after the battle it seems" I said

"Well, that's what happens here, too bad I can't enjoy it more, I'm going back to Unity City soon" he said with a smile

"What's Unity City?" Iria asked as a group of drunk ponies wobbled past us with big grins on their faces

"It's what ponies call the main base of the Dashite Unity, the town doesn't really have a name though." he replied before starting to lead us to a bar "How bout I buy you both some Hard Cider? You did help in the battle after all"

"I don't really drink" I said as we were lead into the bar.

"Neither do I" Iria said trying to pull away. She didn't seem comfortable with heading to the bar.

"Oh, well then how about I take you to Unity City and put in a good word with the leaders?" Sonar Shield said before chuckling. "After we bring it up with Silver Aura of course."

"We didn't really have plans of where to go after here to my knowledge" I said in response as we turned as a group to the Ministry of Wartime Technology elevator.

"I wonder what they've been up to up there while we were shopping" Iria said quietly.

___---POV return, Silver Aura---___

"Thank you" I said to the Pegasus who had just given us instructions to go to Unity City. I then turned to Cloudy Melody and smiled a bit "I guess they changed their minds about us"

She smiled a bit from the bed where I had put her after she had fallen asleep in our embrace on the balcony. She had woken up when the Pegasus in light blue combat armor had shown up. "I wonder what got them wanting to see us." she said as she yawned.

"I bet it has something to do with rescuing a few members of the Dashite Unity from the Enclave base to the west." I said as I then heard a knock on the door.

From the other side of the door came Littlewings' voice "Hey Silver Aura, Cloudy Melody, Sonar Shield wants to lead us to some place called Unity City."

"That was convenient" Cloudy Melody said as she looked to me.

"Yea, somepony just flew in to say that they wanted to see us at Unity City." I said pointing out the door to the balcony.

"Interesting, I didn't think they would send somepony so soon, guess news travels quickly." Sonar Shield said.

"It probably went fast in the Enclave too, their communication systems work rather quickly." Iria said as she came into the room with the others.

"That may make things more difficult if they have a description of us." Littlewings said. "Although, we were pretty stealthy when we were in their base."

"True, but that's no reason to let our guard down when we're out and about." I responded then looking to the time on my pip-buck I said "we should probably get some rest before we head out, better not to be tired in case we run into any Enclave or Survivors of The Vault"

Everypony nodded in agreement and soon after sorting out the supplies Iria and Littlewings had gotten, we were asleep.

*** *** ***

The next day as we left the south gate of New Memory City, we waved goodbye to DJ Memory who had come down to see us off. Several of the guards from the upper levels had come down to see us off as well, giving us gifts from the ponies of the city who had heard about what we had done for the city. The gifts ranged from a few bottlecaps to some ammo, or even some food supplies.

"Take good care of Sonar Shield for me, he's one of the best guards we had." DJ Memory said.

"Don't worry about us, now that we know how to deal with those monsters the city will be safe. Oh, and Sonar, don't forget about us when you get a promotion for what you did for New Memory City" one of the Stallion guards said to Sonar Shield in a somewhat playful manner.

"Yea yea, I won't forget you. What was your name again?" Sonar Shield said, clearly joking.

"Real funny, just be careful out there, not everypony is as nice as we are." said the guard as he gave Sonar Shield a hoof bump.

After that we made our way to the subway system nearby, carefully entering so as not to be ambushed by Ghouls or worse. Once inside Sonar Shield turned on a flashlight, as did Littlewings. The flickering light of the half broken flashlights gave us enough light to move with and still be safe. "So, Anypony know the shortest route to Unity City?" Littlewings asked as we walked down the rusted escalators.

"Well, by land it would be to follow the purple line to Lorin Station. Only problem with that is that there were rumors of a Silverwolf den along the way." Sonar Shield said as he pointed to the purple line tunnels with a hoof.

"We should try it anyway." I said "if our experience with the Survivors of The Vault and the Enclave is anything to go off of, we might not have much time."

"Agreed, the faster we can get there, the better." Cloudy Melody said as the others nodded in agreement.

The trek down the Purple line was rather uneventful, a Feral Ghoul here, a Radroach there. When we were just passing a station that was near Sunset Bay according to my Pipbuck we heard metallic howls coming from ahead. "Lights off, if we're careful they might not notice us" Littlewings said.

Sure enough not long after he said that had we come upon the Silverwolf den. The Silverwolves themselves appeared to be similar to Timberwolves, however they had a green glow about them and their bodies were made entirely of metal scraps. Their eyes glowed with red energy, and a much larger one was at the center of the den, this one appeared to have a crown on it's head. After we got past the den and thought we were safe Sonar Shield started to explain about them.

"Silverwolves are a nasty bunch if they detect you, unlike the Timberwolves they came from Silverwolves are considerably more deadly." Sonar Shield said "The one with the crown was the Alpha, the others were the Betas. I guess we know that the rumors were true now though."

"They came from Timberwolves?" I asked as we continued to tread carefully, keeping our lights off still.

"To be more exact, at least according to the scientists of the Dashite Unity, Timberwolves evolved. Now we know of at least 3 varieties of what we have now deemed Wolf Golems. There are Timberwolves which have now started using any kind of wood, not just branches and twigs. Then there are what we have named Petrowolves, they are comprised of stone and concrete, they do have some metal in them from time to time, but the metal isn't considered to be actually influenced by their magical field."

"And the Silverwolves are made from metal, right?" Cloudy Melody asked "What makes them more deadly than Timberwolves, aside from the metal claws?"

"Silverwolves, being formed from metal, aren't so easy to break apart, bullets tend to deflect off their metal parts unless you hit a particularly rusted piece. Their magical core is contained in a well shielded spot on their bodies. Like with the other Wolf Golems, we have no idea who or what created them, just that they somehow spread." Sonar Shield said.

Just then we heard a metallic howl from right behind us, and the sound of metal on concrete. Turning around we saw several Silverwolves running toward us, evident from the green glow their bodies gave off. Quickly diving for our weapons we knew there was no outrunning the Silverwolves, our only option... was to fight.

The group of Silverwolves appeared to be a hunting team, out looking for food, and they found us. As soon as we had our weapons free we started firing, trying to at least slow them down. Cloudy Melody got 2 in the eyes, causing the Silverwolves to howl in pain. Turning around I quickly tried to scoop Cloudy Melody onto my back, Littlewings doing the same for Iria with a bit more trouble. The Silverwolves were closing in on us, barely slowed by our gunfire. We started to make a mad dash for the next station, Me and Littlewings carrying Cloudy Melody and Iria as they shot behind us, Sonar Shield running next to us while firing behind himself blindly.

The wolves chasing us were slowly closing in until Iria scored a hit on the leg of one, melting it enough to snap off in the Silverwolf's stride. The downed Silverwolf took 3 others with it when it tumbled, slowing down those behind it and giving us a bit more space. The chase continued as the Silverwolves behind us scrambled to get over the ones that fell. We still had a ways to go to reach the next station, and the Silverwolves were starting to catch up again.

"Over there!" Sonar Shield shouted to the rest of us as he gestured toward a door in the side of the subway tunnel ahead of us "We can lose them through there!"

The door was open, luckily, and we dove in. I managed to close it behind us, the steel door holding the Silverwolves at bay on the other side as they scratched at the metal door.

"Th-that was a close one" Littlewings said as he let Iria down from his back while panting from running so hard.

"W-We should nearly be at the station, i-it should be safe there" Sonar Shield said as he got his breath back "w-we shouldn't stay here t-too long"

"I just hope there aren't more of them ahead of us" Cloudy Melody said as she climbed down from my back.

*** *** ***

When we finally made it to the exit of the subway we could still hear the Silverwolves clawing at the door down the tunnel, the sound echoing through the subway and the station. When we saw daylight again the sight that greeted us was astounding, A mountain stood in front of us, with a fort at the base of the mountain made from many vehicles. There were even what looked to be an entire inside area made of trailers that used to haul cargo.

"We're here" Sonar Shield said as he walked up to the gate, the rest of us following behind him. He spoke to somepony inside the gate for a moment before the gate was slowly opened, the gate itself was made from what looked like the side of 3 or 4 Sunrise Sarsaparilla trailers welded together to make a thick sheet of metal. Inside the fort we found a Stable door on the far end, and several Unicorns, Pegasi, Earth Ponies, and even some Zebras. All were wearing the same armor with the Dashite Unity symbol emblazoned on it. The symbol was of a shield with Rainbow Dash's cutiemark in the center, surrounded by the cutiemarks of the other ministry mares.

As Sonar Shield guided us through the fort to the Stable he explained what the Dashite Unity was. "The Dashite Unity was started here, the Overmare and Overstallion welcomed in the Dashites with open hooves" He said as we came upon the Stable door with the numbers 121 on it. "This place used to have two Overmares until somepony who heard stories about a Lieutenant who fought to protect everyone, Ponies, Griffons, Buffalo, it didn't matter, this pony fought to protect them all."

"That sounds kinda familiar" Cloudy Melody whispered to me before the stable door started to open. Once open 2 ponies walked out, they introduced themselves as the Overmare and the Overstallion.

"It is a pleasure to meet the ponies who saved so many of the Dashite Unity's members." The Overmare said.

"We would be honored to have you join the Dashite Unity yourselves" The Overstallion said "Though I'm sure you have your own priorities."

Author's Note

The reason I didn't go into more detail with the Pegasus in the light blue combat armor is because there would have been much the same details as with Littlewings, and this way I could show that the world is living, even when in someponyelse's point of view things are still happening with the others.

This chapter was never finished due to irl events at the time, however I felt it should at least be released in it's current state before I may eventually repurpose some elements of the story in the creation of a post apocalyptic game of my own making.

Said game will not be made for some time however due to my current game project in progress. Silver Aura is also no longer my "ponysona" having since transitioned, I made a new "Ponysona" named Starshine Force.

The eventual game won't be 1-1 with this story, but elements would be repurposed for it. For those interested in my current project, it is called Xenith Awakening, and you can find my posts about it over on Bluesky.