Fallout Equestria: Chronicles of a Rad-ling

"Ugh, where am I…?"

"Am…I dead?"

State your name…

I opened my eyes, and the darkness peeled away. I could only see a bright, white nothingness. No one around but me.

State your name… The invisible voice commanded.

"Horilous Hive-Kin," I responded. "What is this place?"

There are many names, none are important. You may know this place as 'in limbo'. The voice answered.

"So I'm not dead?"

Your mind has been separated from your body for reasons unclear to us. We cannot return you to your body without instruction to do so. Your mind has been contained until your body fails, and you die. Or your body recovers, and we return you.

"I can explain why" a softer voice rang out.

Then do so, child of the earth

"He possesses a hero's spirt." A magenta orb of light flashed to life from the white nothingness. It floated towards me, and I felt as if I was being judged by many eyes. Invisible to my own.

"A hero's spirt? What do you mean?" The orb circled around me, as if inspecting every inch of my chitin.

"You have the potential to become a great champion for good. " I watched the great whiteness fall away revealing a burning, forsaken Canterlot. Which was shrouded by a malicious looking pink mist.

"The Equestria you once knew is gone. The land is tainted with magical radiation that twists everything it touches. Ponies and all the other creatures that inhabit the land now fight for their life on a daily basis." The picture changed. I now floated over crowds of ponies chained together. Sifting through metal scraps, cutting them down to size and throwing them into carts that other ponies pulled away.

"But some still resist the evil that may reside in a ponies heart," The picture changed again, showing me a gray mare with a pip-buck as a cutiemark. "They fight on, but many challenges lay on the road ahead."

"But what do I have to do with all this? My body would have decayed after such a long time of exposure to such conditions"  I questioned the floating orb.  The picture faded away, returning myself and the orb to the great whiteness from before.

"Your body has been affected by the malicious process of ghoulification. Your body is still alive, but it has been twisted by the magical radiation from the mega-spell bombs. It has changed you."

"Other ghouls have faced hardships, as will you. But they fight on," The picture changed again, showing what used to be a grey Pegasus lying on the ground, blood running from her mouth.

"But what do you need me for?"

"The land of Equestria is about to face its darkest hour.  You will play a role, yet it is even uncertain to me which you will play. Pray to your Hive Queen that you do not disappoint us. Do not make us regret returning you to the land of the living."

"What would you have me do?"

Help those who require it, and cull those who prey on the weak.  Those who stand tall on the corpses of many dead must be removed. Be a light in the dark, guide those who will follow you, and blind those who would stand in your way. You will bring the light of the stars to Seaddle.

We will be watching

I felt a strange urge to close my eyes. And as I did, the whiteness fell away to black.

___   ____   ___

Pain...

I couldn't move, my body trapped inside some unknown material. I kicked and screamed, fighting to break free.  My legs had not healed over the 200 years I had been 'in limbo', and attempting to break free aggravated old wounds.  My fore-hoof finally punched through the strange material, and I ripped myself a way out.

I had cocooned. My resting place looked like a coffin, now that I thought about it.

The cave was lit with a odd green light, seeming to come from nowhere.  Like the cave had a unnatural glow.

I had to crawl on my belly, pulling myself with my fore-hooves to move without using my shredded legs.

'You'd think with the power to preserve my life for two hundred years, they would have fixed my legs' I thought.

Then I saw it, a medical kit rested next to a burnt out lamp and a small metal box. I pulled myself to the kit, and there were numerous plastic bottles full of water. I dug around, and I found the item I was looking for.

A health potion levitated out of the kit, a fluctuating green aura instead of my usual translucent blue. I pondered the cause while I sucked down the potion.

I felt the potion's magic flow through me, creeping slowly out from my chest to the rest of me. Something about the healing sensation felt…off.

I tried to stand, but my legs screamed pain in protest. I examined the half empty healing potion bottle. The magic in these things were made to last for centuries, It should've something.

I grabbed one of the water bottles from the kit. I uncapped it and drank, chugging the first two bottles. I was about to chug a third when I noticed something. My legs felt warm, and…tingly?

As I drank, I managed to get to my hooves. My legs had mended, somehow.

'Was this part of that ghoulification thing?' I looked from the butterfly marked box to the metal container that had accompanied it. The box had long been rusted shut, but a good toss against the cave cracked it open.

The box had contained a rusty old pistol and two and a half clips of ammunition, which I took. The cave seemed to have grown brighter since I drank those three bottles of water. Whatever was in them, it worked better than that healing potion.

I continued down the passage, taking all the bottles of foggy water I could find. The cave extended a good way, had to've been a good thirty minutes looking for an exit before I heard it.

A clicking and popping noise, the closer I got to the source, the louder it got. I turned the corner, and discovered where it was coming from.

It was coming from a Geiger-Counter attached to the radiation suit of a dead pony. The remains inside were less than a skeleton. Another pistol was next to the body, and I took the clip for myself. The pistol upon further inspection was broken. So I left it.

The clicking seemed to fade when I broke line of sight, and faded away as I made my way farther through the cave.

___   ____   ___

"Aww, What the hell!"

BANG! BANG! BANG! click-ck

The huge, bald rodent leapt from the ground floor up to the catwalk as I riddled it with bullets. And of all he ammo I had scavenged, only the half-clip was left.

The green vision was getting quite annoying, as it was making it hard to tell brown rodent from brown wall.  A second rodent jumped up to the catwalk, within kicking distance this time.  I gave it a one way ticket back to the lower level with a swift buck with my hind legs. The thing screeched as it fell to the floor, and was silenced with a loud crack. Signaling I had killed at least four of these mutated creatures.

The first creature that had jumped up had pulled itself up onto the walkway.  It growled as a string of saliva hung from behind the massive front teeth it had.  I had already had the experience of being bitten by two of them.  I would not let there be a third.

The beast charged as I unloaded the rest of the ammo I had into it.  The beast stumbled, landing inches from my hooves.  It wasn't dead, but it was close.

Eat it...

"Where are you?! Show yourself!" I raised the empty gun.  I may not be threatening, but I can try to fake it.

You've been asleep for so looooong, aren't you hungry?

I couldn't see anything talking, I caught myself looking down at the dieing animal.

You know you want to.

Now that I thought about it, the animals weren't attacking anymore.  And the crazy voice that may or may not be my own imagination is right,  I haven't eaten in literally centuries.

But...I'm not hungry...

I wasn't hungry.  After 200 some years my legs are still broken, but my stomach is full? What the hell.

The creature that had just two minutes ago wanted to rip my throat out, whimpered at my hooves. I remembered the half empty healing potion.  It hadn't done anything for me, but maybe it would work on this thing.

I pushed the potion up to the rats mouth, and poured.  The potion took affect, healing it's minor wounds and taking the edge off the larger ones I had made.

It stood up on its four paws, and looked at me.  I would have described it as confused.  It didn't attack me for my bout of stupidity either, which was cool.

It ran away from me, retreating into one of the many holes in the wall.  And again I was alone in some place I couldn't find the exit of.

___   ____   ___

'In the moment, it seemed like a nice thing to do,' I thought to myself

'Yeah, it was a nice thing to do, but it was a choice that literally could have bit you in the flank,'

I had exited from the cave via another metal door into what seemed like the Seaddle sewer treatment plant.  Then I got ambushed by a bunch of weird rat things, and killed four before I ran completely out of ammo. I couldn't finish off one I had wounded, so I force fed it a healing potion.

good to review on past incidents I suppose.

It had taken me almost an hour, countless back-outs, and numerous deep breath sessions, but I had unlocked a terminal on the third floor just to unlock the front door.

Who ever the pony was who designed building systems like this should be shot.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Level up!

Current level: 2

ERROR: USER DOES NOT POSSESS A PIP-BUCK DEVICE.  UNABLE TO ALLOCATE POINTS OR SELECT PERK UNTIL AQUIRED