Fallout: Equestria - Purity

Chapters

0 - Prologue
2 - Descent into the Darkness
3 - Claustrophobia
4 - Vanhoover
5 - It's Not The Fall That Kills You
1 - The Saviours of Equestria

0 - Prologue

A Fo:E side story by StormbadgerXII

Chapter 0 - Prologue

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria...

...war rained down upon the ponies like a meteor from the sky, crushing everything in it's fiery wake. Lives, towns, friendships... nothing survived the onslaught. Equestria was torn asunder, the scheming politicians doing nothing to repair their home. The Ministries turned to more desperate means of obtaining victory, but in the end it was all for naught - Equestria burned under the balefire blasts, the very core of its government corroded and burned from scandal and corruption.

After the great pegasus cloud city, Cloudsdale, was hit by the first megaspell, the pegasi fled the burning land below, sealing themselves up behind a layer of clouds and shielding their eyes and consciences from the horrific sights below. All but one, brave, loyal and dedicated mare spared themselves from inevitable death, a move which sent waves of discontent through the skies. The Grand Pegasus Enclave decreed that all ponies who should follow the now-dishonoured Ministry mare would be branded Dashites and cast into the hellish wastes below. And, for a long time, the pegasi remained entirely ignorant of the surface.

But not everything can be kept a secret forever...

"Mummy!"

The mare felt a tugging on her apron to her left. With weary, tired eyes, she turned away from the bubbling pot of ingredients and looked down, seeing a small yellow foal, pulling on the white cloth suspended on her neck. She smiled at the tiny pony. Had she had more sleep, she would have been absolutely stunning to look at. As it stood, she was just very attractive. "Yes, my little pony?" She knelt down, looking into her child's eyes.

"I can't sleep and I wanna hear a story." The foal grizzled, a yawn accompanying his statement. The pretty young mare sighed quietly.

"I'm sorry, my dear, but I'm a little busy." The mare said, giving the little foal a scruffle of his mane with a light green hoof. "And I've told you every story I know."

"But what about daddy?" The foal asked, clearly not happy with this answer. "Doesn't he have stories?"

"Your daddy's busy defending the town." The mare sounded a little... sad? The foal didn't like it when his mum was sad. "It would be best not to bother him."

The foal stomped his hoof, speaking faster than his brain worked. The mare placed a hoof on her son's lips, and the string of words halted.

"Maybe one of the patrons has an interesting story to tell. Just stay away from shady characters." The mare fussed, giving the foal a little hug before standing back up to check on the cooking. The foal needed no more encouragement as he scampered out of the kitchen, and nearly tripped down the wooden stairs to the lower part of the bar. He stopped at the bottom of the stairwell and looked around with wide eyes.

There were many ponies in here. Happy ponies, sad ponies, angry ponies, ponies in the corner throwing up (eeeeew!), ponies kissing other ponies, ponies talking, ponies playing games with cards, ponies drinking, ponies singing, ponies laughing, ponies being ponies. The barkeeper gave a friendly hello to the little foal, who replied with gusto. He kept his big eyes looking around for somepony who looked like a good storyteller.

His eyes settled on a figure in the darkest corner of the bar. He was wearing a coat or cloak or something, leaning back on the chair with a small glass of amber liquid in his hooves. He looked worn out, tired, kind of sad, and like he had been through a lot. The foal beamed as he bounced along to the mysterious stallion. This guy must have a good story.

As he trotted closer, the stallion's wizened green eyes slowly focused on him, and a little smile crossed his face. "Hey there, little one."

"Hi!" The foal nearly shouted, clambering up on the stool opposite the stallion. "I'm Happy!"

The stallion blinked. The foal sighed briefly. Everybody had that reaction when he told them his name. "My name is Happy!" His name, actually, was 'Happenstance', due to the unprecedented conditions of his creation, but he couldn't really say it right, so everyone just called him 'Happy', because he always was.

"That's a really nice name." The stallion smiled again, taking a sip from the glass. "What can I do for you?"

The foal put his hooves up on the table. "Tell me a story! Tell me a story!" The other patrons in the bar were starting to look over. The light blue-grey stallion raised an eyebrow.

"A story?"

"...please." Happy added quietly.

The old-ish buck chuckled. "I've got some good stories. Like 'The Mare in the Moon', 'The Wrath of Discord', even 'The Changeling Invas-"

"I've heard those before,” The foal grumbled, pointing a hoof at the stallion, much to his surprise. "I wanna hear a new story!"

The stallion sighed, smiling again. "Well, guess you don't want any old mare's tale."

Happy nodded furiously, making him a little dizzy. The stallion smiled and leaned back. "I've got a long one. Of course, I don't want to bore y-"

"Tell me tell me tell me tell me!"

"Are you sure?"

Another round of furious nodding.

The stallion smiled again, putting the glass aside and leaning forward, a slight whirr coming from under the table. "I forgot to tell you my name, didn't I? I'm Nimbus."

Nimbus, Nimbus... Happy hadn't heard of a name like that before. It seemed kind of familiar, though... "That's a weird name."

"It's only weird because it's a pegasus name," 'Nimbus' said.

The foal tilted his head. "But you're not a pegasus."

The stallion chuckled, biting down on a button-like thing on his cloak, undoing it. As soon as it was loose, a couple of fleshy growths on his sides pushed it off, then splayed wide. They covered in feathers, like a bird's wings. The foal gasped. He had never seen a pegasus before.

"Woooooow..."

Nimbus smirked, stretching his wings further. Happy sat there, mesmerised by their movements. He began wondering what it was like to have wings. Did they have any feeling? Did they feel like an extra set of arms?

"Yup, they're real." The wizened stallion looked back at his wings, smiling. "And they've been a great help for as long as I can remember." He reached up to his wing with a hoof, scratching it. The foal caught sight of a metal bracelet surrounding the area just above the hoof, with a small screen that was glowing a slight sickly green.

"Are you from a Stable?"

Nimbus stopped, looking at the tiny yellow pony, then his wrist. "Oh, that's just something I picked up on my travels."

An earth pony mare at the bar counter turned around, and said in a low, threatening voice, "Y'all one a' them Enclave ponies?" A number of other patrons spun around to face the buck, now obviously a pegasus with his wings sticking out. The winged limbs quickly snapped by his side.

"No, I'm not. I used to be, but that was about 10 years ago."

The mare hesitantly took that as a 'no'. Nimbus sighed.

"The Enclave really didn't help their reputation around these parts..."

Happy, on the other hand, didn't seem fazed by this at all. In fact, he started bombarding the buck with questions. Until, that is, a hoof pressed to his lips stopped him.

"Do you want to hear the story?"

"Yes! ... please."

"Well then, you might want to get comfortable, this is a long one."

The foal nodded, scampering down to the ground and galloping off, up the stairs, returning with a dirty white pillow on his back. He tossed it with a nose up onto the stool, then awkwardly climbed back up on it, sitting down and looking into the stallion's eyes.

"Comfortable?"

Nod nod.

"Good. Now, this is my tale..."

Author's Note

I have to admit, I was having a hard time trying to find a way to start this story that really seemed to work. I actually began writing a long while before I said I was actually writing this story, but I felt as if I had so poorly executed it that I gave up that idea.

Then this idea came to mind and I felt my writer's block lift.

So yes, I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter, and let me know what you think :twilightsmile:

Kudos to SigmatheAwesome, Tonto the Trotter and Filthma for pre-reading this chapter, and donutsforthewin for editing it.

2 - Descent into the Darkness

Fallout: Equestria - Purity

A Fo:E side story by StormbadgerXIII

Chapter 2 - Descent into the Darkness

"This is my world. You are not welcome in my world."

Until I opened my eyes, the fall was pretty... relaxing. No fears, no worries, no emotions... just simply letting yourself fall, in the grip and at the mercy of gravity.

Training for cloud-drops in the Enclave taught you that after a second of free fall, you have to right yourself so you can fly properly again. Instinctively, I kicked myself into gear, snapped my eyes open, and nearly screamed! All around me was an inky blackness; drops of water splashed against me from all sides, and distorting my already poor vision from the visor of the armour. I had no idea where I was, nor whether I was upside down or not.

After my moment of panic, I stopped, hovering in place as my wings flinched with every rain drop hitting them. The coat on my muzzle felt damp. Despite my panic, I realised I had to move, or else I'd be more than screwed if the officers decided to pursue me. I drifted forward, relying on my HUD to keep me from flying into something painful.

The EFS in-built into the armour systems, unlike most EFS's, told me not only which direction I was facing from the ground, but like a lot of Enclave systems, it also factored in your flight angle. I kept myself level, flying a little bit to the east.

A little blip appeared on the compass, ahead of and above me. It was Final, I thought, and I sped up towards its general direction.

Final sped towards it too.

Before we could stop ourselves, we slammed into each other, becoming a temporary tangle of metal, cloth and feathers. I yelped and spun out, my world returning to a blur of rain and darkness, until my training kicked in once again and I steadied myself, fixing up my facings and turning to Final, who, too, had recovered from her own tumble.

I called out to her. "Final! Are you ok?" After a second, a tinny reply came through a speaker next to my right ear.

"I've had worse."

I sighed with relief. "Ok," I responded at a normal volume. "Hold your position, I'm en route."

"Roger that, si- Nimbus! I mean Nimbus."

Stifling a chuckle, I drifted towards Final, who was hovering in place, the rain splashing on her creating a light mist around her body.

"Ok, now that we're down here, where the hell do we go?" she muttered, looking around at the darkness. "I can't see anything."

I shrugged. "Well, why don't we just fly down? Maybe we'll get a better view on the surface."

Final nodded. I took a breath in and flapped my wings, pointed downwards. Fortunately, I knew that I was at least going the right direction, not just from the navigation display but the rain falling towards the abyss. My feathers felt heavier than I wanted them to be - I'd have to dry them later on. Final matched my speed, flying beside me. I flicked my suit-mounted flashlight on.

One of the first few things pegasi learn about is clouds. I never consciously thought about it, but the clouds above us were cumulonimbus clouds. Or, in laypony's terms, great, big thunder clouds. And with those, came thunder. A flash of white light and an almighty boom resounded behind me, nearly giving me a heart attack. However, one positive it had was to illuminate the surface world below, even if it was for a split second. We were extremely high up from the ground, heading down into a flat, scorched and sodden plot of land, with a single, partially ruined building among it. To the east, there was a large area of what was probably the city of Vanhoover that my father mentioned in his terminal entries. To the west, there was a mountain, thought I didn't see much of that particular feature. I relayed most of this info to Final, and we adjusted our course as needed, using the other flashes of lightning to make sure we were still on the right path.

Soon enough, the ground came into proper view, and I hovered just above it. I was, naturally, a bit apprehensive to land. First of all, I had never stood on anything more than clouds - would this be like that? Not only that, but the moment I stepped on the ground, I would be putting the final nail in my Enclave career's coffin. It was true I couldn't go back anyway, but this just guaranteed it.

Final, however, didn't even seem to think twice, placing all four hooves on the ground and folding her wings up. She looked up at me, a small smile on her face - or was it a smirk?

Reluctantly, I lowered down, gingerly placing a hoof on the ground. As soon as I had placed it, I felt both immense relief and a sense of dread. I couldn't feel it through my armour, but it didn't seem lethal. I put my other hooves on the dirt and mud-covered ground, and I sighed.

"You ok?" Final asked.

I nodded, catching my breath a little and folding my wings in. "Just a little..." I trailed off as I looked around. From the occasional flashes of the overhead lightning, I got a better sense of the sheer scale of this place. It didn't look too big from the clouds, but we were very high up. That mountain had to be at least twenty miles away. A little closer, though not by much, was a white, narrow tower jutting up into the clouds. I had seen the top of it from a distance away when I was up in Feathertip, but never the rest of it.

"Well, at least you're not freaking out," Final chuckled, nudging me in the shoulder, snapping my focus back to the world. I briefly looked up. No holes in the clouds, no angry officers hell-bent on trying to kill us. Good.

"Ok, we need to find shelter for the night," I said, pointing to the structure I had seen from the air. Now that I was on the ground, it actually seemed like a fair trot away. Part of the roof looked like it had caved in; in fact, half the building looked like it had given way to time and gravity. "That looks like our best bet."

Final turned to face where I was pointing. "Uhhhh... that building?"

"Yes."

She turned to face me, an unimpressed look on my face. "Seriously?"

"Yes."

After a second, her face rolled into a smirk. "Alright, cool. Let's go!"

If we had no idea, from second-hand evidence, what life was like down here, this introduction would have been one to send me flying back to the Enclave, back home and curled up in my comfortable bed.

"Tear the flesh! Salt the wou-"

Zzap!

The foul, yellowed-eyed, insane pony with a rusted pipe in his mouth fell down to the ground, half his face dissolved into a puddle of glowing green muck. I had never seen live targets being hit by magic plasma, and so I had to stifle a gag as the foul reek of burned flesh rolled past. Red blips appeared on my EFS, as I turned and tongued the trigger of my plasma rifle again, another glowing bolt of green death spewing forth and slamming into another savage pony who had been firing some sort of automatic slug-throwing weapon at us. Most of the shots missed, but the ones that did hit were so pathetic they did barely anything.

Final had taken to the air, flying around to attack from behind. I got another bolt off into the autogun pony, the only pony who had actually seen Final move, and his bleeding body tumbled down onto a mare with a spiked baseball bat in her mouth, pinning her down and cracking her jaw. Another pony, armed with some sort of pistol with a revolving mechanism, jumped up and snapped some shots at me, forcing me to duck into cover. I checked the charge on the rifle - it had enough to get a couple more shots off before I needed to reload. After I heard the loud blamming stop, I leaned out of cover and fired a couple of suppressive shots. One shot grazed his body by accident, but he still ducked quickly back into his own bit of cover. I leaned out, trained my rifle, and waited... and waited... and waited...

Geez, how long does it take to load a ballistic weapon?

He finally poked his head out, and I sent a shot flying right into his face. It didn't kill him, annoyingly, but he did stumble and stagger back...

Right onto an orange disk.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Oh fuck!" was the last thing he managed to say before his body was violently ripped apart by an explosion, limbs and chunks of flesh scattering grotesquely as the mine below him triggered. The baseball bat mare had finally extracted herself from under the autogun stallion, but was greeted by a hoof, then a plasma pistol bolt, to the eye. Needless to say, she didn't live long.

I checked my EFS. Nothing was showing up. All contacts neutralised. I carefully stepped forward, being careful not to trot onto any orange disks, of which a few remained. Final was already rummaging around, pulling stuff out from cupboards and drawers. I blinked, floating up to her.

"Final, what are you doing?"

"Repurposing."

I looked at the stuff she had piled up. Pens, bottle caps, clipboards...

"Final?"

"Yeah?" She turned to face me, a pencil in her mouth.

I gestured to the pile.

"Yeah?"

"That stuff's useless, you know."

She shrugged. "Could be valuable to the ponies here."

I gave the pile of random crap a skeptical glare. "I don't see how that stuff would be valuable."

"Hey, if there's this much crap here, they have to have been hoarding it for something."

I looked to the dead stallion who had fallen from the roof. "I don't suppose it occurred to you that these guys are insane, right?"

"Yeah, and?"

I facehoofed, before trotting up to the savage and poking at his weapon. "So that's what ballistic weapons look like..."

Final glanced over. "Oh, those guys might have valuable stuff on them."

I groaned, rolling my eyes. "Final, we're not looting their corpses."

"Why not?"

I could have barked that it was an order not to loot corpses, to stop further questioning, but that would have undermined pretty much everything I had been saying about us being friends, not me being her superior. I sighed, turning to face her. "It's just wrong."

Final looked at the bodies, then back at me. "Think about it this way, Nimbus - if the good ponies here buy guns, then we can give them or sell them or whatever to them, so that bad ponies don't get them and they can shoot the bad ponies themselves."

I balked, but she had a really good point. "Alright, you win." After a second, I added; "but you carry it."

Final saluted, then flew between the bodies, pulling stuff from off them. I, myself, began packing the gear Final had piled up into the saddlebags, letting the armour's auto-sorting spell organise it all. I decided to leave the clipboards where they were, taking only the bottlecaps and writing utensils - why these might be valuable, I had no idea, but Final seemed to have a good one. Once I had finished, I sat down on a dilapidated chair, opened a canteen and took a sip, leaning my head back.

I was greeted with the face of a mare, her face contorted in fear and blood caking her dead eyes and mouth.

Nearly choking on my water, I shrieked like a filly, falling back with the chair, scrambling away from the body suspended from the roof by chains, my back and wings pushing against a wall. Something gave, and I tumbled through what I now realised was a door, bumping my head on the ground. I snapped my eyes open after my three-second daze, and saw what could only be described as a nightmare.

Pony bodies everywhere, pony body parts not attached to their owners, blood and other vile substances over the walls, painting crude images of pornographic or sadistic things. A mare's body, blood and a disgusting yellow-white substance dripping from her flanks, lay limp on a bed with an iron clamp around one ankle and a hole in her head. A colt suspended from the roof by his hooves, a particular part of his anatomy nailed to his forehead. A stallion, nailed to the wall by his ears and forehooves, his body the scarred canvas for a masterpiece of cruelty. A filly's head in one corner, covered in just about every substance you could name that the pony body produces, the rest of her body in another corner, burned, scarred and brutalised in ways I couldn't fathom.

I threw up before I could shriek in sheer horror, an acidic taste filling my mouth. Who in their right fucking mind would do this sort of shit?!

A pair of hooves grabbed my flanks and drew me away from the room. I envisioned a savage pony we had missed dragging me off to beat, rape, dissect and mutilate me. I screamed and bucked behind me, missing my attacker.

"Woah!" Final shrieked, before flying up to my head and smacking me in the face. I staggered for a moment, lost my balance and fell over, and after a half-minute of trembling, I sighed with relief.

Final had told me I looked pale, and had found a (thankfully clean) bedsheet and wrapped it around me. I still tasted bile, even after a whole canteen of water. Images of the savages' sadism flickered in my mind. I kept staring into space, my thought drifting away; I knew that it wasn't making my conversation with Final any easier, but I couldn't get that fucking scene out of my brain.

"Were they a family?" I shakily asked myself, out loud. "Were they just a normal happy family heading to Vanhoover or from it, when these... fuckers... got them...?"

Final wrapped a hoof around my shoulders. "I dunno, dude. I dunno..."

"Why would ponies even do shit like this? What did this family do to deserve it?"

Final sighed. I was asking questions nopony except the ones we had just shot could answer. I shuddered as the image of the filly's head flashed through my brain. Final got up, patting me on the back, before trotting off.

"Where are you going?" I asked, scared something would happen to her... or me. Though, we had shot all the savages... right?

"I'm only gonna be a sec," She replied softly, before trotting off. She returned a minute later with a large bracelet in her hooves.

"What's that?"

"A PipBuck," she said matter-of-factly. At my somewhat perplexed look, she added "a mini terminal that goes around the leg. Should be handy to help find our way around here."

I nodded, before asking "where'd you find it?"

"In a cupboard."

Seemed legit. I looked at the metal cylinder, and saw that a map was on the screen, showing the entire area. I leaned in, getting a better view. "Well, whoever owned this was heading to... Stable 73?"

"The hay is a Stable?" Final asked. I explained what I knew about Stables - they were life-preserving underground shelters made before the megaspell war. We had been told that they had failed, killing thousands of ponies, and that there was nopony down on the surface. But there was some evidence in front of me that the Stables had worked. My friend nodded, before standing again.

"Alright, let's go!"

"Wait, what?!" I stood up. "We're going there?!"

Final nodded. "Unless you want to sleep in here."

I shook my head quickly, but then turned my head to the room - the door had been closed for my sanity. Didn't quite help. "Though, we can't just leave them here..."

We stood at a distance, watching the room of horrors glow orange from the window, smoke wafting from out of it. I wondered if giving the victims this sort of funeral was respectful, but I couldn't bear to look at them, let alone touch them, so a burial would have been an absolute nightmare.

And I was sure I'd have plenty of those already.

I had said a few kind words, and some curses to the savage ponies who would probably burn along with them. Final, despite herself, said nothing.

After a while, I returned to my path. I had entered the coordinates to Stable 73 onto my EFS, and followed the marker on it. Final flew up to me after a second.

"Nimbus..."

"I'm fine," I croaked.

Final looked away from me, off into the rainy distance, and muttered under her breath "I hope you are."

I could understand her concern, but it wasn't worth worrying about.

The rain had picked up as we flew along, water drops splattering against my visor. The thunder rumbled above us, occasionally illuminating the hillsides with a flash of white. It might have been my mood, or perhaps the scene in front of me, but everything just seemed... bleak. I started wondering why we had even come down here in the first place, if the only thing we'd be greeted to was rain and horrible murders.

Soon, we had found a small, wooden door, and the label to Stable 73 on the PipBuck flashed. I had to see about copying the data onto my suit's map at some point. Final heaved the door open and gestured to let me in first, and I entered, turning my flashlight on. There was a narrow stone path leading up to a steel panel. I gulped. Everything just seemed so... tight.

Final landed beside me, grinning. "Well, at least we're out of the rain."

I nodded, stepping forward and up to the door. It had the number '73' painted on it, and next to it was a small control panel. The two of us looked at it; it was a small thing, with a lever and a keypad.

"Huh. Just a lever?" Final asked, before pulling down on it. Nothing happened at first, but then... nothing. I blinked. "Try it again."

Final did, then when nothing happened again she began randomly pressing buttons and pulling the lever and so forth. I stepped forward, looking further at the door. It was huge, and made of steel, but other than that it-

UWAAH! UWAAH! UWAAH!

The klaxon rang painfully in my ears, as flashing, spinning lights next to the door saw fit to blind us. I turned to Final, who had a bundle of wires in her muzzle. She grinned at me.

I tried to say "What the hell were you thinking, that could have locked us out of the damn place forever!" but the alarm didn't help. Soon, the horrible tortured screech of metal grinding on metal filled the tiny cavern, and I had to cover my ears to stop myself going deaf. The door slid back, then to the side, and then the alarms and lights finally died, only silence and dust remaining.

I looked inside the Stable. It was dark, but not pitch-black, with a couple of humming and glowing orange lights on the roof. And it looked... small.

Final let out a low whistle. "Alright, let's go in and get some shut-eye."

I turned to her, raising an eyebrow. "In here?"

"Yeah."

"What if the ponies here don't take kindly to us?" Images of the raider camp flashed through my mind again.

"Then they can talk to us or taste plasma."

I shrugged, then felt my eyelids growing heavy. It was at least 2 in the morning and I desperately needed sleep, I had no desire or energy to argue with her plan. Final wasn't looking so good herself, and with weary hooves and wings we moved into the Stable, looking for a good spot to stay.

"Maintenance or Clinic?" Final asked.

I thought for a moment, trying to get a coherent thought through my fatigue-clouded brain. "Clinic has beds."

Final nodded, yawning. "Let's go and meet some ponies."

We hadn't even seen a living pony in here yet. The clinic was devoid of staff, the halls were empty, and everything just seemed eerily quiet save for the constant hum of the lights. I yawned, staggering into the clinic after Final, and shut the door. I slid my stealth suit off and flew onto one of the beds. It was by no means a cosy, comfortable cloud, but it was the best I had, so I went with it. Final remained clothed, save her helmet, which lay on the table beside her.

"Aren't you going to take of your suit?"

"Nah, it's comfy," She replied, wriggling around on the second bed. "'sides, I don't want to make you feel awkward."

"We're both military, Final," I yawned. "It shouldn't matter."

"Still, I think I can cope."

"Alright," I said, shutting my eyes after a while. I began some slow breathing exercises to help my body relax after the stress of combat, the horror of the savage's room and, of course, leaving my entire previous life and my home, Feathertip, behind. Tomorrow, I could go find my father, maybe go into Vanhoover City itself and see what was going on there and how I could help. But for now...

I needed sleep.

"Good night, Final," I murmured. She mumbled a vague reply back, as my mind drifted away into the land of sleep; I smiled.

We might be hundreds of miles from home, but I always knew my home would be where I knew I felt like I belonged.

And, as long as I was with Final, I always had home with me.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Confirmed Bachelorpony -- +10% damage to the same sex and unique dialogue options with certain ponies.

Author's Note

For those of you who found the 'Raider Room' to be horrific and disturbing, don't worry - things'll get a lot more horrific and disturbing later on. Mwahaha.

Thanks to Filthma and SigmatheAwesome for proofreading this, you guys are awesome :)

Well, hope you liked this chapter and are looking forward to the next one :twilightsmile: I'll be releasing a new chapter every week until I run out of chapters to post.

~StormbadgerXIII

3 - Claustrophobia

Fallout: Equestria - Purity

A Fo:E side story by StormbadgerXIII

Chapter 3 - Claustrophobia

"Wow, what a rough night."

My eyes slowly pried open, and I found myself lying on my back in what could best be described as blackness. I rolled to my hooves and tried to stand up, only to have my head hit something that could be considered a roof. I pressed my hooves to it, wondering how blackness could be so damn solid, when I heard the sobbing of a filly in the distance, a single light illuminating a small pony, her body heaving.

Cautiously and awkwardly I trotted up to her. "Hey... don't cry... it's ok..."

"It's not ok...” the filly sniffed. "It's not ok..."

I knelt down behind her, smiling warmly. "It's fine... you're not alone anymore..."

"No... they're all dead... dead because of me..."

"Who?"

The little pony wailed for a second, before returning to quiet sobs. "Mummy... daddy... bro..."

I blinked. "What happened?"

The filly couldn't answer. Her face was hidden between her forehooves, a small pool of tears below her. I reached out and placed a hoof on her shoulder.

Her head fell off, her face as still as death as her body fell limply to the ground.

I screamed, staggering up to my hooves. My back hit something with a squish. I slowly turned only to see a stallion bleeding from his ears, staring into my eyes with his own soulless ones.

"Please... h-help... me..." he rasped. I backpedalled like mad, as he shambled after me. I felt my flanks hit a solid object, and I turned to see only black. The filly's body convulsed and sat up, reaching over to her head and placing it on her neck. I galloped to the side, and as I peered back I slammed into another body. I turned to see a mare, one I instantly recognised as the mare who had been raped, brutalised and then shot by the savage ponies. Her eyes were awash with tears, her head wound leaking red and some grey-pink. I gulped, staving off my urge to vomit, then galloped off again.

I spotted a figure in the distance. It was Final, thank goodness, wearing a red dress and looking away from me.

I called out to her, and she didn't respond. Something was off...

As I got closer, I saw that the dress was white. Well, it was.

"Final?"

Her head turned to face me a little, a wan smile on her mouth. Blood dripped from her lips. She tried to speak but only vomited blood. I nearly followed suit.

I galloped up. "Final, what happened?!"

She turned to face me some more, and I saw that half her face had melted off, an eyeball hanging loosely from the empty socket. The other corpses had caught up to me. Final turned her body, and I saw that it wasn't just half the flesh of her face that had melted off. Something ropey dangled between her legs.

"Fin-!" I screamed, before I threw up, the foul reek of rotting flesh overpowering my senses. I backed away as quickly as possible, only to be greeted by black wall. Final started limping towards me.

"N-nimbus..."

I shrieked.

"N-n-nimbus."

I scraped my hindlegs at the ground, trying to push against the uncompromising darkness as the corpses staggered towards me, surrounding me in a half-circle. Final froze, before shrieking my name and hurling herself at me.

My eyes snapped open and I instinctively flew up into the sky. Only there was a solid metal wall in the way, and I bounced harmlessly off it. I screamed and flailed, swinging out at everything, fighting off the zombie ponies meaninglessly. One of my hooves smashed into a table and I felt tiny blades cut into me, but I didn't care.

"Nimbus!" Final, the real Final, shouted, as I stopped swinging, fell to my haunches and hyperventilated. My friend flew up to me, placing her hooves on my shoulder and looked into my eyes. I wanted to scream, to panic, to get the fuck out of here, but... my eyes met hers and I finally slowed down, my horror converting into a tightness in my stomach. One sniff and I realised I had thrown up on myself.

Final sighed, placing her forehead on my chest. "Dammit dude... don't fucking do that..."

I said nothing - I couldn't. I wanted to apologise, to explain... but I couldn't bring the words up.

Instead, I broke into tears.

It had taken me a good half-hour to finish with my breakdown. Final had been hugging me the whole time, whispering words into my ears to try and soothe me. I had thrown up a second time, fortunately into a bedpan and not on my friend. Damn, I didn't want her to see me like this... the strong, noble friend of hers, Nimbus Cloudhoof, reduced to a blubbering mass of pony over a bad dream. But she seemed not to pay any heed to my worries, and rather, was wiling to stay by me despite it.

I had finally managed to get a word out. I explained the dream, and I saw her visibly pale on the mention of what happened to her. She had joked about her endurance but I didn't find it funny. It was easy to laugh at something that wasn't thrust onto you. She provided me with a drink to help get the taste of bile out of my mouth, and some food to fill my now-empty stomach. I could barely eat but I tried. She had also put a bandage about the hoof that had hit the table which, as I learned later, was covered with scalpels and other pointy things.

"Geez, I know you've had bad dreams before but damn, that really takes the cake," she muttered, hoofing me my armoured bodyglove. I nodded and slipped it on.

"So, how'd you sleep anyway?"

"Me? Like a foal tied to a log," she smirked.

I tilted my head. "So is that good or bad, because I don't think a foal would sleep well-"

"It's a joke, dude," she sighed, a wan smile on her muzzle as she leaned down. "Should've saved it for when you weren't... I mean... I had a pretty good sleep." She rubbed a part of her foreleg. "Though these aren't as comfortable as I thought."

"Then why'd you wear it?" I asked.

"Because I thought it was comfortable."

I rolled my eyes, before shakily rolling onto my hooves. I looked around the room again, now that I was awake and calm enough to take in some details.

The clinic was pretty meagre - barely any obvious medical supplies. I wondered if the unicorns that may have lived in here had any healing spells, or maybe the whole population had just gone through so many of their supplies. A vent was just above the bed I had been sleeping on, which meant I was probably getting most of the temperature-altering effect. A couple of splatters of blood and a pile of regurgitated trail rations lay on the floor, some of the blood a lot older than my own. A single desk was in the room with a swivelling chair and a terminal made out of solid metal. I had decided to check it out, out of curiosity. I was wondering when somepony was going to notice that a couple of pegasi had snuck in - it was already ten in the morning according to our clocks.

After a very tedious but surprisingly easy hacking attempt, I managed to open up the terminal. The PipBuck Final scavenged had been useful in helping with that. One line was designated to open a safe, and a couple of medical reports and personal diary entries were in the others.

I didn't know where the safe was so I immediately went into reading some of the things on there.

Medical Report #212

Patient: Lighthorn

Sex: M

DoB: 4.14

Relationship?: None

Diagnosis: Asthma

Lighthorn had reported breathing difficulties early in the morning, and was immediately brought in here when he fainted in the middle of Maintenance. Throat was partially blocked by small particles, but not significantly so to most healthy ponies. Patient was diagnosed five hours after incident.

Recovery process: Patient is to use Stable-Tec issued inhalers to help with breathing difficulties, as well as being transferred to a position less likely to incite his condition until he has shown signs of recovery.

Medical Report #223

Patient: Boltlock

Sex: M

DoB: 12.12

Relationship?: Yes

Funnel, marefriend

Diagnosis: Sexually-transmitted infection

Boltlock was brought into the clinic to have a check for sexually-transmitted infection by his marefriend. Subject was tested positive but has stated he has never had sexual intercourse. Records confirm this fact.

Recovery process: Preventative medicine and condoms.

I was starting to have a feeling this pony was a pretty lacklustre doctor.

Personal log entry #4

Finally got Bolt tested for STI's. I don't want to have to deal with an itchy cunt for the rest of my life. Of course the idiot had to be positive, though he's never had sex. I have no fucking clue where he got it and I kinda don't want to.

I have to admit, he is a pretty nice guy, very well-meaning and fairly handsome, but he's so fucking dumb. Hell, he probably doesn't even know what fucking hole to stick it in. Most stallions with half a brain more than this guy are all scared of me and, let's be honest, no stallion wants to be under my knife. Hell knows I could neuter all of them.

Of course, the Overmare wouldn't allow it, and truth be told many mares would be on me in minutes when they would find out what I had done. Celestia dammit, I just wanna get out of this fucking Stable and go to Vanhoover.

Well, I would, except the whole fucking place is dead.

I type 'fucking' a lot, don't I? Guess it's because these Luna-shitting medical reports can't have them and I have to maintain a good bedside manner or else I'd get fired or something.

I fucking hate my job.

Oh well, better not send this personal entry to the Overmare like I did with the last one. That didn't go over well...

Wow. Grumpy much? I flicked to the next one.

Medical Report #257

Patient: Russet

Sex: F

DoB: 7.9

Relationship?: None

Diagnosis: Paranoid schizophrenia

Russet was brought into the clinic screaming about the air trying to kill the Stable's population. Sedation was necessary to prevent injuries. One member of Security was wounded in the sedation attempt (see report #256). Patient was interviewed and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia type C as per the guidelines of the EDSM.

Recovery process: Anti-psychotic medicine.

Medical Report #299

Patient: Mic

Sex: M

DoB: 8.3

Relationship?: None

Diagnosis: Psychosis and ALFS

Mic was brought into the clinic unconscious, part of his barding fused to his coat and skin. When the patient awoke he immediately attempted to attack everypony in the room, foaming at the mouth and screaming incoherently. Three Security officers were wounded in the attempt to sedate him. Sedation did not work, and the patient was euthanised under orders from Security Chief Cuprum.

Recovery process: Patient is deceased.

Addendum: ALFS injuries are becoming more common. Maybe maintenance could look into this to prevent further cases? Thank you. ~Dr. Funnel.

What the hay was ALFS? I keyed the next entry, eyes widening. Most of the other reports seemed to become more and more similar every second; psychosis, ALFS, schizophrenia, breathing problems...

Personal log entry #13

FUCK

Sorry, had to get that out of the way. Those fucking cunts in admin aren't taking my reports seriously. There's ponies fucking dropping like flies everywhere in the stable, and those that aren't are looking like they're on the verge of some sort of mental illness.

Fucking fucking fuckers better fucking read my fucking reports or else.

Ok, now that that's out (mostly), I've decided I'm gonna fucking leave this hellhole of a Stable. I'd rather die out there then be trapped in a tiny metal box slowly decaying. And besides, I doubt the little pony in my uterus would appreciate it.

Boltlock's decided to stay here; obviously this fucking death-trap is more important to him then his flesh and blood, which I'm fucking carrying for him. I don't fucking care anymore - he's probably too stupid to look after a kid anyway. Might sit on it.

I know its suicide to leave the Stable, but at least out there there's a chance of survival - this fucking place is going to kill me anyway, why not get out and try to live outside?

Besides, what good's one doctor, with a developing foetus in her, in a metal container that's slowly dying anyway?

I'm going to send this report to every fucking one of these god damn stupid cunts just to show them that I don't approve of their bigotry. If you're reading this, FUCK YOU and I'm already gone. I know enough about computers to put a delay in sending this around. So long, you stupid fucking suckers!

Oh, and Bolt, if you do decide to man up and get your flank out here, I'll be in Vanhoover, look me up or whatever.

Signed, with feeling;

~Dr. Funnel

PS: Shard, you owe me ten fucking bits, but you're going to die anyway so keep them.

Well.

Shit.

I looked away from the terminal and spotted Final looking at a little panel on the door, one that looked an awful lot like a safe. I tapped the 'Open Safe' command and something inside of it clicked, startling Final, before she turned and gave me a questioning look. "Why'd you open the safe?"

"I think everypony in here's dead," I said, glancing back to the terminal. "Or they're insane."

Final hovered over and looked at the glowing screen, tapping some keys. Her eyes widened after reading the last few things. "Well. Shit."

I nodded. "Besides, I just want to know what's in it."

Shrugging, Final hovered over to the safe and peeked in. "Hey, there's a gun here! And a whole stack of bits! ... Who just leaves money in here when they're going to leave?"

Somepony in a hurry, I thought. I drifted over and had a look in the safe - there was a clean, well-maintained (or completely untouched) pistol that had a revolving bit remarkably similar to one that the savage ponies had in design, with a hooffull of bullets beside it. The gun itself had a shiny, dark-coloured metal design, with 'EUTHANISER' embossed on the side. A large sack of bits sat in the corner, as well as a holotape (I'd never really handled or used one before but I'd seen drill sergeants use them for training vids).

"Should we borrow this stuff?" Final asked, turning to me. "I mean, whoever owned them would have died by old age, if savages or monsters or other random crap didn't get them first."

I put a hoof to my chin. "Maybe... I think we should leave it for the moment." None of us had any real training with ballistic weapons, though it was probably much the same, save for the recoil. The bits would jingle like mad and we had no use for a holotape. I shut the safe, locking it again through the terminal.

Final almost seemed disappointed.

We had decided we might as well look around - the Stable couldn't have been that big, right? Unfortunately, it was big. Small, confining and claustrophobia-inducing, yes, but there was so damn much of it. The first level was completely devoid of ponies, or even anything that was living. We had found a couple of skeletons in some of what looked like living quarters, one of which had part of her body fused to the floor. Had she died like that or did something happen to her? I didn't need to press the question so I kept moving.

A red blip appeared on my EFS, blinking below us. I held up a hoof to stop Final moving, and, crouching low and sticking to the shadows, I descended down the stairs silently. I pressed the button on the panel next to the door and it hissed open. Beyond it, through a light purple-pink haze, I saw a pony standing there, looking around with his or her head turned away from me.

I snuck forward, trying not to breathe in this mysterious mist. The pony had no weapons, armour, or even looked like she could fight terribly well. Heck, her body language was screaming non-hostile, and was clad in a tight-fitting Stable 73 suit.

Then why was she showing up as red on my EFS?

I couldn't hold a cough back, and the noise echoed throughout the metal halls, more so than it should have. The Stabledwelling pony turned towards me slowly, hollow eyes peering to me, glowing bright pink like the drool coming from her mouth. Her face seemed like it had been melted slowly, and upon closer examination I saw that the barding had fused to her coat and skin, and in a few places the barding actually seemed to be the coat itself.

I could have shot her, made quick work of it all and move on, but the sight of the deformed pony halted me in my tracks. She looked down at my crouched form, cocked its head to the side for a moment, before half-hissing, half-roaring and rearing up to stomp my head. With a flap of my wings I dashed back, her pink hooves smacking into the solid ground below.

I bit down on the trigger bit for the rifle, the green bolt slamming home. It wasn't as powerful, momentum-wise, as a bullet (as I had recently discovered) but it compensated by being so damn hot. The pony's flesh/barding bubbled and melted and she let out a powerful roar, her face visibly contorting in pain. I fired a couple more shots, the first missing entirely and the second hitting her in the knee, dropping her.

All was still for the moment, but then she got back up, the seared flesh healing a little as a low growl came from her curling lips. It was a slow repair, yes, but it was freaky.

"What the-?" was all I managed to say before the Stable mutant jumped on me, pinning me down on my wings; that hurt like a bitch. I kicked up, pushed her side, headbutted her, anything to get her off me, yet she still remained on top of me. I couldn't even fire my rifle or move to draw my pistol. She arched her head back and opened her mouth as wide as possible, a soft pink light coming from within, hell bent on biting me.

A loud boom and a subsonic lead projectile disagreed with her actions, and send her brains flying across the walls, a puff of pink mist (glowing pink mist) rising from her neck, before she fell limp on top of me. I groaned and shoved her off, rising to my feet. Final stood in the doorway with Euthaniser in her muzzle.

Looking back at the giblets, I was now more frightened of the steel in Final's mouth than what else might be lurking down here.

As we got further down, the purple cloud seemed to be getting thicker, and even the walls were starting to take on a violet hue. We had to duck into a few rooms on the way, rooms that seemed more or less clear of the probably dangerous smoke. I was starting to wonder whether grabbing these experimental suits were exactly that for a reason, or maybe the designers were wanting us to breathe in toxic fumes.

As for the other ponies down here, none were much better than the first - they were all insane; some little more than an animal, others seemingly normal and talking, but were just mad. We had decided to sneak around them - we didn't want to come under attack again. Of course, trying not to get seen was extremely difficult and we had to face a few. Euthaniser was not subtle, but it did much better against the mutants than my plasma.

Good thing we had medical supplies to keep us going.

We had managed to duck into an office that was more or less completely clear of the smoke. It was pretty small, and I felt like I was going to get squished. We had found another terminal, and had flicked through it.

Most of it was garbage, and there weren't even any special commands, but there were two entries that really stood out.

Entry one

Something seems to be going on with this damn Stable. I've heard ponies talk about having difficulty breathing, nightmares becoming more common, shit like that. I'm starting to feel a little nervous about being here, but hopefully it's just some sort of mass Stable Depression Syndrome or something.

Some ponies have asked me to check the vents, but they're all checking out, all pathways to the air filtration room are connected properly. The AFR itself is perfectly operational too, no damage or whatever.

Still, as long as they keep having breathing difficulties, we'll be working our flanks off to try and fix a problem we can't fix until we find out what's going on.

Entry seven

I made a startling discovery today - the AF room isn't even connected to the air system. Or, well, some of it isn't. There's fresh air coming through, so we're not all going to suffocate, but there's another line going down lower to a forbidden area of the Stable - Overseer and Authorised Ponies only. I'd like to think that, as head of Maintenance, I'm pretty damn qualified, but no, apparently I'm not.

Whatever's been causing difficulties for the ponies here, including many of my staff, it's worse now. Ponies having chronic breathing problems, nightmares every night - hell, Russet's been declared insane and Mic Soundwave's been put down. Damn, I liked his radio shows.

I'd make for it and leave, but I don't want to die. Though, maybe if this thing gets to me too, I may end up dead anyway. We'll see what happens.

EDIT: The doc sent a message to every terminal in the Stable explaining her leaving the Stable. She knows more about what's going on with the pony end anyway. I have to get out of here too.

"Something tells me this isn't a safe place for ponies to survive anymore." Final muttered.

The last mutant pony in this group fell down, foreleg somewhere far off. Final lowered her gun, smirking. I muttered a 'nice shot' before flapping my sore wings to jump over the body, looking around for the 'air filtration room'. Not having a map of this place was a real handicap. Eventually, we found a door with 'AF ROOM' marked on it, and we trotted in, greeted with fresh, cool air, free of any impurities.

Looking around, I saw a number of pipes leading from a central machine that looked like a pump mechanism and up to a vent thing. It suddenly occurred to me that I had been sleeping under one of the air vents, and that I had been exposed to whatever had poisoned Stable 73. That would explain the nightmare...

Final looked at the pump and rubbed her chin. "Hmm... well, it's big and noisy."

I had to agree.

I floated over to the pipes, running a hoof along them. One of them was nearly ice cold, the other was unnaturally warm. Strange...

I followed the pipes up the wall, stopping when they both slid into it, probably to the rest of the Stable. I went the other way, stopping when they receded into the machine - the warm one had a red light above it, the other a green one. I crouched low and saw that both pipes lead into the floor. I glanced over to Final, and let her know of my discovery.

"Below? But wasn't the below area restricted?"

I hummed an affirmation. "Which means that whatever's down there is what's affecting the entire Stable."

Final smirked. "And I suppose you want us to check it out?"

"Not just yet. There's still the Overmare's office to check out yet. We might be able to find a passcode or something."

"Isn't that, like, just around the corner?" she asked.

"No, that was the head of maintenance's office. The Overmare's office is on the top level."

"We have to walk all the way back up there?!" Final groaned.

"Nope. Just me."

Final blinked and gave me a look. "But-"

"No buts, Final." I said sternly. "Besides, I shouldn't be too long."

The trip wasn't as bad as I was expecting - all the mutants seemed to be somewhere else. I moved much faster on my own, thought I felt strangely naked without Final to keep an eye and ear out for danger. I had managed to get the Overmare's office door open through the clever use of a bobby pin and some torque, and slid into the surprisingly fresh room.

The semi-fresh corpse at the desk wasn't helping.

I closed the door and walked forward, looking at the body. Strangely enough, she hadn't decayed as much as I'd expected, but I didn't know how long she had been dead for, so it could be recent. She seemed strangely calm, almost resigned, like she had entered a deep, endless sleep. She was a rather aged pony, but had gone well through it and had barely any visible signs. I was wondering what had caused her death but the empty pill bottle next to her gave a fairly clear indication.

I wanted to be able to give her a proper burial but there was nowhere I knew where I could do so. Instead, I grabbed a blanket that we had kept from the savage ponies and laid it on top of her, wishing her peace.

I stopped for a moment - I had been Enclave not too long ago, where matters of spirituality were the least of my worries, and here I was, praying to some higher being for their wellbeing.

Only 10 hours down here and I was already changing.

I decided to pick around the room to see if there was anything of worth. Aside from some bits and magazines which I stored away, plus some ammo for ballistic weapons, there wasn't much else. I did find some holotapes and a white glass orb, though. I loaded up one of the holotapes, labelled as 'Welcome!'

Indeed, it started with that too, as I found out when I slotted it into a part of the helmet.

"Welcome!

"Hello, my name is Scootaloo, the founder of Red Racer and the vice-president of StableTec.

"...

"Of course, that shit's all meaningless now. Chances are you don't even care who I am, but if you're listening to this, then Omega-level security protocols have been enacted, and we have to try to save ponies as much as we can. If somepony in the OIA or MoM hadn't twisted every fucking thing to try to kill us all we wouldn't be in such a difficult position...

"Sorry, I keep side-tracking... Celestia-damned sons of bitches...

"Ugh, can't get through one of these without breaking down...

"Ok, look, long story short, we're not just trying to save ponykind. We're also trying to find out what went so fucking wrong with us to cause all this shit in the first damned place.

"...

"For fuck's sake, Scoot, can't you keep on the damn script...? Ok, sorry, I'm just having a hard time with all of these. I have to do one hundred and fucking one of these, and I started fouling up at twenty...

"Ok, again, sorry. Inside the safe in the room is a set of specific instructions for you to implement. If, for whatever reason, you think this experiment is going to harm the residents of the Stable, don't hesitate to stop following them and try to rectify the problem; otherwise, just follow the instructions...

"Damn... I don't... why does it... why this one?! What the hell was Twilight thinking when she asked for this to be explored...

"Well... guess that's it. Thank you from us, from us all, from Equestria, and may somepony up there have pity on you poor...

"Fuck...

"Well... only got another, what, twenty-eight of these to go...? Damn it...

The recording cut out, and I finally fell back into reality. I had heard of the name 'Scootaloo' in school before, and it wasn't supposed to be a good connotation. I barely paid attention in that lesson. But now that I had actually heard this mysterious pony speak... my heart felt heavy hearing her pain. I desperately wanted to go back in time, rush up to her, and give her a big hug and tell her everything was going to be fine.

I had to make do by hugging the holotape.

I slid the tape away, returning back to my scavenging. I found a security key and another gun, though judging by the size of the bullets that went with it, it wasn't extremely powerful. Leaving it at that, I descended back down to Final.

"About damn time!" Final rolled her eyes. "I didn't hear any shooting."

I gave her a rather serious glare. "The Overmare was there."

Final blinked. "Really? Wow. What'd she do?"

I sighed, looking away. "Well, she had overdosed on something and was dead when I found her."

"Whoa. How long ago?"

"I don't know, I'm not a forensic analyst." I retorted, before passing her the Scootaloo holotape. "When you have a moment, listen to this - hopefully you paid attention to the classes and can tell me some more."

Final nodded and slid the tape away into a saddlebag. I trotted up to the door to the locked section, and used the security key on the panel. The door slid open and a blast of warm air rolled past.

Not to mention a series of alarms, and a number of hissing growls behind us.

"Shit," Final accurately put it.

Adrenalin once again kicking in, I galloped down the long stairwell, which had decided to turn a few sharp corners, opening up into a large chamber containing a number of large vats full of a brightly glowing pink liquid that was emitting some sort of purple smoke.

I was about to ask what it was, rhetorically, but then the sign above it clearly labelled 'Liquid Magic! Do Not Touch!!!' kind of gave it away.

"Liquid magic?" Final asked. "How the hell is that even possible?"

"I don't know how, but I now know that it is," I replied. I'd never had many lessons on magic when I was up in the clouds - pegasi didn't really have the sort of magic that unicorns had. We had only learned how pegasi magic worked - how we could fly, how we could stand on clouds, how we could manipulate the weather, blah blah blah. All very technical, really.

And now we were looking at three giant vats of condensed magic.

Upon closer examination, I noticed that there were a number of funnels above it, with some grating over the lips. A constant hum and the sight of each plume of gas rising into them told me there was some sort of fan in there that was sucking it up like a vacuum.

Suddenly, all the puzzle pieces clicked in and it all made sense.

"They were funnelling gaseous magic into the air of the Stable and exposing the ponies to see what it would do to them..."

Final gave me a look of confusion. "Say what?"

I rolled my eyes. "Ok, you see those vats?" Nod nod. "They're full of magic. The magic is being turned into a gas, and is being pumped into the air filtration system through those pipes-" I indicated the pipes to Final and moved my hoof up to the roof "-where it is being breathed by the ponies up there. The magic affected their lungs and caused breathing problems, got into their brains and nervous systems and caused them to have nightmares, then become insane, and then it clinged to their flesh and caused some sort of liquification or cloth-to-coat conversion."

Final was silent for the longest of times. "Nimbus?"

"Yes?"

"When did you get so smart?" She smirked.

I wasn't in the mood for joking, nor compliments. "Ok, we need to find some way of stopping this."

Final's face took on a grin that made me worried. "Leave it to me."

I nodded and moved over to the door, pressing the 'close' button to make sure that nopony could get in. I then dashed over to a control panel and began examining it.

It was out of order.

"Oh come on!" I shouted, smashing my hoof against the screen - nothing happened. "Why do this?!"

"Maybe they couldn't get anypony down here that could repair it?" Final said, holding a wire in her mouth.

"Maybe..." I trotted over to a table that had a map of the entire Stable. My goodness, it was huge! Fortunately, the diagram also showed us the room we were in.

And right below us was a supposedly natural deposit of liquid magic.

"Well, that explains where they found it."

Final asked me, and I explained it. She nodded, before returning back to... whatever she was doing.

There was a knock on the door and a whole mass of red dots on my EFS.

"Contact!" I shouted, turning and powering up my plasma rifle.

"Give me a minute!" Final growled, before dropping something and cursing loudly. The door thundered as if a hundred ponies were stampeding over it, which they probably were! I was just glad the door was holding.

Then part of it bent out of shape with a resounding dong.

"Final!" I called back.

"Almost done!"

Dong!, another dent. A hoof poked through the gap.

"How long is 'almost'?!" I moved into a combat stance, placing the reticule of the HUD onto the door. I zapped off a shot into the hoof.

"About twenty seconds, give or take!"

Dong!, a pony could now fit his deformed face through it, snarling loudly.

"I don't think the door can-"

"Shut the fuck up and let me do my job!" Final bellowed angrily.

Dong!, now this pony could get most of his body through. He started reaching for the button. I fired a bolt into his hoof but it missed and hit the button, doing nothing.

He finally hit the button.

The door opened. Twenty mutants poured in. I fired shots. One died. Something went click. I drew my pistol quickly.

"Now!" Final cried, tapping a button on the PipBuck.

A series of small explosives went off on the vats, collapsing their supports and sending them tumbling.

Towards me.

"Move!" Final shouted as I jumped up and back. Hooves reached up to me but couldn't get a grip. With a horrible whine and screech, the vats tipped over completely, the liquid magic rolling over the floor like a bright pink wave. The liquid spouted a great mass of smoke, blocking most of my view. I saw a pony that had been covered in it explode gorily, certain points on their magicka network bursting like red grapes. The sounds of hisses being cut off and the exploding squelches signified that they all suffered similar fates.

Final hovered behind the ruined vats, laughing maniacally, shouting insults to the exposees.

I felt something boil up inside of me, and I hovered over. She turned to me with a smile on her face, but it instantly dropped when she saw mine.

"Final, what the fuck were you thinking?!" I bellowed, grabbing her by the shoulders. "You could have killed me!"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" she cried, shrinking up a little. "I thought you'd be able to dodge, or that you'd fly up when I-"

"Did you even know what your plan could have done?!" I continued. "Those explosions could have caused the magic to explode and crush us all beneath several thousand tonnes of steel and stone!"

"But-"

"No buts!" I leaned in close, pressing my nose against hers. "You could have killed everyone here! Don't you ever fucking do something like this ever again without explaining it first!"

Final squeaked, reclining into her further. I could see her eyes become wet, her pupils small. I couldn't care less at the moment, the fire in my heart still burning brightly

"Ok?!" I screamed, shaking her a little more.

"O-ok!" Final squealed, pushing me away and turning from my sight. I hovered there, my anger now slowly turning into a hollow feeling in my chest.

I sighed. "L-look... I was just scared, ok? I didn't want us to die..."

Final sniffed, turning to look over her shoulder at me. I rubbed the back of my neck, flushing a little - how could I be so stupid at yelling at my best and, now, only friend.

Way to fucking go, Nimbus.

"I think we should get out of here." I muttered, looking down at the pink liquid with chunks of red meat floating in it. Final nodded and drifted silently behind me.

"You sure you want to do this?" Final asked, turning to me. She still seemed a little scared of me, as her voice was uncharacteristically quiet.

I nodded. I looked back at the very outer entrance of Stable 73, wondering if what I was doing was the right thing. Or, for that matter, even a safe thing to do. But... this should be done. I didn't want somepony to walk into here and get killed. And Final had managed to pick up as much as the two of us could carry, so that was all well and good.

Final sighed and pressed the button on the PipBuck. A deep rumble and a cloud of dust came from the gaps in the wooden door.

That was it. It was done.

I bowed my head in respect, sighing. Final placed a hoof on my shoulder, and when I looked up I saw she was smiling warmly, a caring look in her eyes.

I wrapped my hooves around her and squeezed her for all her worth. After a second, I felt her do the same.

A few minutes later, we decided to move on, following the road down to what we assumed was Vanhoover. The signs on the road saying '2 miles to Vanhoover, City of Heroes' helped to confirm my theories.

"Look, Final, I'm sorry I snapped at you." I said after a pregnant lull in the conversation. "I just... I don't like being... I hate small spaces with no real way out."

Final smiled. "Yeah, I know. Sorry I did something so risky. I did take care placing the explosives, though."

"Yeah, you were always better with them than m-" I stopped for a second. "Wait, where'd you even find those?"

"Savages kept some on them, weirdly enough."

I shrugged and kept on walking. Soon enough, Vanhoover appeared, and from this distance I could tell that it was a lot bigger than I had expected. A large tower jutted out from behind some walls and shorter buildings, a large purple star with some smaller white ones dotted around it proudly displayed on the side. The ramshackle walls of the edge of town were fairly tall, and I could see ponies trotting along the tops of them, armed and armoured.

One of them had a gun pointed right at us.

So much for a warm welcome.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Scout -- +5 to Sneak, and half Perception is added to crit chance.

Author's Note

Argh, I forgot to upload this chapter last week. Ah well, better late than never, eh?

Hope you enjoyed this one. Thanks again to Filthma, Tonto and Sigma for pre-reading, Kkat for creating Fallout Equestria, Somber for Project Horizons, and you for reading :)

Keep tuned for the next chapter...

4 - Vanhoover

Fallout: Equestria - Purity

A Fo:E side story by StormbadgerXIII

Chapter 4 - Vanhoover

"Uh, do be a polite house guest and go wash up please, won't you?"

The Wasteland must hate me.

Seriously, I swear it was already out to break me and I had only been down here less than a day. First the savage ponies and their handiwork, then the magic-filled metal tomb of a Stable...

And now in what I thought was a civilised place, someone was pointing a gun at me.

"Stop right there or Ah'll shoot ya where ya stand!" the voice called out, resting the long-barrelled weapon in his forehooves with the trigger bit in his mouth. Not wanting to get perforated, I stopped in my tracks. Final was smart enough to do the same thing.

"We don't mean you any harm!" I shouted back. "We just need a place to stay and recover!"

The voice was silent for a while. "Where ya from?"

"Feathertip!" I returned.

"Where the hay's that?"

I stopped. "It's... uh... a few days trot from here!"

"Ah ain't never heard of a 'Feathertip' before!" I caught wind of something on his end going click. "Last time Ah ask, where ya from?"

I sighed. "We're from Feathertip, a cloud city!"

"A cloud city? So y'all are Enclave or sommat?"

"No, we're Dashites!"

"...The fuck is a Dashite?"

"It means traitor! Can we come in now? We have goods to sell!"

The guard was silent for a moment, before he lowered the rifle. "Alright, y'all can come in, just don't start nothin' or we'll hafta have a talk!"

"Thank you!" I replied, before trotting forward towards towards the walls. With a hum of an engine and a horrible grinding noise, part of the wall broke into two, opening just enough for one pony to walk in without too much difficulty. We got through no problem, Final flying above me.

Once we walked in, the door grinded shut again, and I took the opportunity to have a look around the city. The city was a little more sparse than I though it was, or at least it was around the large tower, which was itself surrounded by a circle of pavement. A number of hoof-made stalls and shops were set up, made out of old buildings and plates of metal. Some buildings attempted to reach the height of the star-marked building, but had crumbled around the third storey. Ponies, some with horns, some with guns, some with armour, all trotted about on their own or in small groups. A small party of foals galloped around, chasing after a shaggy black creature with some white stripes across it's coat from muzzle to tail.

A nostalgic feeling poked me in the chest.

A quartet of hooves dropped down beside us - it was the stallion with the large rifle that was threatening to scatter my skull. He wore some sort of duster and had some sort of broad-brimmed hat on his head. He turned to me and smirked.

"Well, them's some fancy steel on ya."

"Thanks," I said, glancing at my hooves. "Experimental tech."

"'S'long as it stops a bullet it's fine by me," His accent reminded me of the pegasus ponies from Neighvarro... weird. "Guess Ah should welcome ya t' Vanhoover, City of Heroes and the last bastion of decency in this whole dayum hellhole."

"Aside from pointing guns at complete strangers," Final joked. The stallion didn't buy it.

"Jus' protectin' muh town. Y'all came from the direction of the raider camp, so Ah had t'make sure."

I flared my wings slowly. "And these didn't give it away?"

"This rifle o'mine don't have a scope."

I mouthed an 'oh'. "Well, thank you for not shooting us."

The stallion nickered, pushing his hat down on his head. "Ain't no prob."

After a moment's silence, I asked "By the way, where's the general store?"

The guard pushed his hat back up and pointed down a fair way. "Third store on the right, next t' the Crispy Stoat."

Final snorted.

"Can't miss it, got a big sign on it what's been painted over."

"Right." I said, filing the directions away in my head. "And where's a place we can stay?"

"That'd be the Crispy Stoat."

I nodded, giving a glare to Final, who looked like she was struggling with a laugh. Thanking the guard, who simply tipped his hat in return, I started heading further into town. I could have taken to the air, hovered above everyone, but it might have been a little rude of me to do so.

As I headed towards the general store, I couldn't help but notice the stares I was getting. Everypony except Final and the stallion who greeted us into town glanced over this way. Some with curiosity, some with a gaze that could only be wishing ill on us. A foal was trying to wriggle free of his mother's grip to no avail. A few mouths hovered above pistols.

In all honesty, I couldn't blame them for being cautious. If the raiders were anything to go by, then the Wasteland was barely survivable as is with the crazy ones wanting to... well... do raider-y things to ponies. And then, here we are, a couple of winged ponies in strange armour with fancy glowing guns walking around with a bit of blood on them (the unfortunate result of an exposee who decided he wanted to explode on us when we shot him). I had already powered down the weapons, of course, but I guess ponies who hadn't seen energy weapons wouldn't know.

The store, which was merely a square of brick with the words 'General Store' over a pre-existing sign, a few broken windows looking in and a series of plates of corrugated sheets of metal covering up some holes in the structure, looked fairly derelict - there were less ponies then I had expected to be around here. The stores in Feathertip usually had more ponies than this. Mentally shrugging I trotted in.

The store was dimly-lit, the light being filtered by both the curtains and the dirty glass behind them, casting a yellow-orange light over the shelves. Dust motes hovered in the air, and I felt a sudden and startling reluctance to breathe. Bent shelving frames sat around, their contents proudly displayed or otherwise on the floor in various states of disrepair. A rack of ballistic weapons of various sizes were mounted on the wall opposite the entrance, grimy and rusty. On top of the counter there were numerous exhibits, such as boxes and bottles and a couple of weapon clips and some books. And, amongst it all, was an equally dirty-orange-beige pony who blended perfectly with the surroundings, who was too busy trying to fit a weapon up onto the rack in such a way that I feared he'd break it.

"Excuse me-" I said.

"Wait a bloody moment!" the stallion called back suddenly in a voice that was lighter than I had expected. He had a rather... strange accent, too. "I'm a bit busy, Luna-dammit!"

I blinked, raising an eyebrow. "We have-"

"I said wait!" he snapped.

So I waited. For at least five minutes, if my suits clock was anything to go by. Final seemed to be growing impatient. The orange buck was still cursing and trying to break the gun with his ineptitude. I cleared my throat.

"You're still here?" He quipped, glancing back at us. I'm not sure what caught his eyes first - my armour, my weapons, my wings, or my bulging saddlebags. Considering where his eyes lingered the most, it was probably the saddlebags.

"Yeah, of course we're here," Final said, eyebrow arching up. "We've been waiting for you to finish for about five minutes."

"Well, y'ah should have said you had goods to trade," He rolled his eyes.

"I tried to but you interrupted me," I mentioned.

"Well... um... ugh, this gun won't even fit." He growled, tossing the gun to the side and dropping back down to the floor, whirling to face us with a peculiar twinkle in his eyes, his flanks appropriately displaying a pair of cash bags. "Alright then, whatcha guys got?"

"Ok, the health potions I can understand, and that Wasteland Survival Guide, and the ammo and the ballistic weapon... and the food," Final said, taking another swill of her Sparkle~Cola. "But why the Rainbow Dash?"

I looked up from the cyan plushie of Rainbow Dash, raising an eyebrow at Final. "Because we needed an equal trade and this covered the costs." It turns out one reason the raiders might have stockpiled so many bottle caps was that they were used as money. All the loot we had found had landed us quite a lot of 'caps', and as a trade off we had brought as much ammo as we could afford, both for our energy weapons and Euthaniser (Final wanted to keep it). Besides, we were Dashites - traitors to the GPE and the followers of the actual mare this adorable, huggable pony represented; I thought it would be appropriate to have one of these plushes. And there were heaps in stock; Baggy, the trader, had said that nobody ever brought the plushies.

Of course, a full-grown stallion with a plush of Rainbow Dash in the middle of the tavern area of 'The Crispy Stoat' was worthy of a hundred stares.

"Put that thing away before somepony thinks you're crazy," Final laughed, playfully hitting me in the shoulder. I gave the plush one more look, slid it into my saddlebags and took another swill of my purified water. It was fairly expensive but it did the job.

"We ought to look for work here," I said after a while.

"Good idea." Final nodded, before chugging down more of her drink. We had both decided not to touch any of the alcohol - I wanted to stay dry and Final was an incredible lightweight. "Where do we go for that?"

"I dunno," I said, shrugging. "Guess we go ask around?"

"You sure that's a good idea?" Final cocked her head in a rather adorable fashion. "I mean, if we just walk up to any pony they might wanna shoot us or something."

A couple of the others in the bar nickered.

"Final, mind the company we're in," I said in a hushed voice. "Maybe we could ask the barkeeper if he knows anypony who needs some work done for them."

"Or," a third voice said; a mare, but deep and gruff. "I'll take ya to one of them ponies."

"Or that, that's a good-wait a minute!" Final said, whirling to meet this new pony's gaze. I glanced over, and saw the towering powerhouse in a vague pony shape looming over us. "Who the hell-"

"Shut up. The Mayor wants to see you," the titanic motherbucker of a pony added.

"The mayor?" I asked. "Why the mayor?"

"Fuck if I know, but that's m' orders," she replied.

Final and I exchanged glances. This was either really damn good or really damn bad.

"I've got a job for you," the well-groomed buck behind the mahogany desk said. He leaned forward and pressed his hooves together.

"Alright," I said, wishing that the ponies who let me in hadn't confiscated all my weapons - it wasn't that I distrusted this stallion, I just felt a little naked without some way to defend myself. "But I want to know what the mission is before I do it."

"Fine fine." The mayor pushed his spectacles up his face a little. "I sent a group of well-armed and well-armoured ponies up to the higher levels of the tower we're in." He pointed up as he mentioned it - his office was on the ground floor of the skyscraper we had seen on our way here. "They haven't been heard from in a long while. Their supplies should have run out by now."

"So what do you want me to do?" I said after a second.

"Go in the way they came, and find out what happened. And, if at all possible, find something we down here can use and bring it here." He sighed. "It's no secret this town's in a pretty awkward position - we've been able to repel raiders and even the odd alicorn-" Wait, alicorn? "-but we haven't got enough resources to keep it up. We're running shorter on ammo and food, our guns are getting worse, our armour's falling apart..."

He reached up and rubbed his temples. "Every day I feel we're slipping closer to oblivion. Soon, we'll have to send parties out to scour the ruins, and if worse comes to worse we might have to raid places. I don't want these good ponies becoming raiders."

"What about trading?" I asked, scratching the back of my head.

"We've got raiders on the path to Mustangia, more between us and Harmony, even Gintown, a whole mountainload of alicorns up near 'New Alicornia' or whatever those freaks call it." He sighed. "There just isn't any way we can get past them without making our guards better."

...and the guards needed the items from trade to be better to be able to trade to be... Ok, I could see his point.

"Alright, consider it done," I said, holding out a hoof.

"Huh? What- oh, the job. Right. We'll settle payment when you come back," he muttered, waving me off. "I appreciate this, but I'm afraid you have to get going now. I have other business to attend to."

"So, how'd it go?" Final asked, sitting on a chair outside of the office. "Good, bad, ohgoodnesswe'reallgonnadie?" As I walked past her, she flapped her wings and took to the air.

"We've got a job," I said.

"Sweet." She floated beside me. "What's the mission?"

I explained it as best I could, Final nodding along. I had decided we would embark on the mission tomorrow, spending tonight resting and relaxing so that we were ready for it. As the light began to fade, we decided to spend what little of it remaining to explore the city, get to know this place pretty well. It was a decent enough place, everyone was nice and polite, but they kept staring at us.

This mission would be easier for us if we hadn't been told we had to take the same entrance into the tower as the previous team had - we would just fly up to the windows and look in, maybe break one open and fly inside. Instead, we had to take the makeshift stairs at the 'back' of the building, moving through a concentrated population of the local pest/foodstock, also known as a 'radger' - badgers that had been exposed to too much radiation. Why anypony would even consider eating meat, let alone irradiated meat, was beyond me, but looking around, growing crops would be pretty hard normally.

At least there's protein in it.

I had spent a lot of time looking up at the sky, wondering how everypony else was doing. No doubt some of my ex-squadmates weren't very pleased I decided to leave, no matter the reason. I half-expected some sort of publicity campaign to go out about us. Heck, I'd be surprised if they didn't send some of their own to find us, track us down, and burn off our cutie marks. Or worse, just shoot us and say that they were attacked. I wondered what would happen to my house and, by extention, everything that I didn't take with me.

A small part of me urged me to give all of this up and fly back to Feathertip. It's pointless to try and help when you can't even do anything, it said. But another part, a part which had been encouraged by the words of wisdom by my father, spurred me onto this little quest, to try and make life in this area better... and maybe find Dad too. I'm sure he'll hate me for going down here, but, truth be told, he did say I could do whatever I wanted as long as it felt right and did more harm than good.

Stiffling a yawn I decided it would be best if we retired for the night. We returned to the Crispy Stoat, gave the buck at the counter some caps in exchange for a night, but was surprised to hear he only had one single room left, and that room was only designed to fit one pony. It'd have to do. I volunteered to sleep on the floor.

Entering the room, Final immediately rushed to the bed and jumped on it. I grabbed some of the spare bedding from the cupboards and piled them into the centre of the room, tossed the stealth armour aside, and lay down. The pile did barely anything to help.

Final and I exchanged out good nights, and I closed my eyes. I couldn't sleep though - not only was I scared I'd have another nightmare, but there were some ponies in one of the rooms adjacent who were really going at it, creating enough noise to stop me sleeping. I could have told them to stop, but I honestly didn't want to interrupt them mid-act. And, even then, I doubt they'd stop anyway. Final, who was facing away from me and had covered herself in a blanket, made an adorable noise that could be best described as a happy whimper (not a particularily good description, I should add). I found myself blushing a little from many feelings and, aggrovatingly, I felt a stirring between my hindlegs which I so desperately tried to ignore.

Groaning with annoyance, I took one of the holotapes from my saddlebag; the one we got from the medical clinic. I pulled the earbuds from the PipBuck, loaded the tape in, and listened. The voice which came on was hoarse and gruff, definately female, but had a hint of... what was it? Compassion?

"-fucking work- oh, shit, it's on! Ahem... Doctor's audio log, number 1. We're now performing surgery on Mic Soundwave to see about removing the barding that has fused to his coat through Arcane Liquified Coat Syndrome... or something. Either way.

We're starting with some localised anaesthetic to the affected area-" a little squishy noise "-and we're hoping he doesn't awaken mid-proceedure. F-... Luna knows what'd happen."

A lot of the tape was medical jargon I only half got, with some pretty stomach-turning noises in the background. Or was that from next door? It was hard to tell.

In an instant, the entire audio changed.

"Doctor?" A young buck squeaked. "I think he's waking up!"

"What?!"

Soon enough, a blood-curdling howl came from the earbuds, as the long-dead Mic's recorded voice began screaming in pain. Or horror. A horrible ripping noise and, with a scream, the body of the young stallion hit the ground. Grunting and babbling came from the DJ, with some deeper voices bellowing for somepony to do something to stop this psychotic patient.

A roar of a familiar gun answered their heeds.

"You just shot him!"

"Of course I fucking shot him! He just used a bonesaw to attack Knit."

"Aaauuugghghhhh!"

"Ah fuck, get me those bandages and antiseptic!"

"Y-yes ma'am!"

"Hold on, Knit, yer gonna be fine."

"My eye... I can't see out of my eye..."

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck... oh fuck, his girlfriend's gonna be so..."

"Here's the stuff!"

"About fucking time! Give it here! ... Ok, I hate to do this too ya, Knitty, but this is gonna hurt like a bitch."

"W-w-whaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

The doctor, Funnel, sounded like she was starting to cry, even while Knit was screaming in a pain I could only imagine.

"Doc, the recording-"

"Turn it off! Turn that fucking thing off!"

"But-"

"Do it! The Overmare does not get to hear this!"

"Yes ma'am!"

Click.

I released a breath I didn't realise I was holding in, my wings drooping by my sides. My emotions were all messed up inside, anger and sadness being foremost. I wanted to travel back in time, and kick Twilight Sparkle in the mouth for being so stupid and causing this much pain to ponies, but I had no way of doing it. Not only that, but Knit would have been half-blind and, most likely, traumatised by the events.

The couple across from us still weren't finished. Final could probably hear it too, as her wings were stretched out and stiff. I sighed, and grabbed the second holotape - the first of three from the Overmare's office. I had given one, the message from Scootaloo, to Final already. Trembling from the shock of the last tape, I hesitantly loaded the next one up. This one had 'Welcome! 2' written on the label.

"Hello, this is the Overmare of Stable 73. Or, well, ex. If you're listening to this, then I have passed the mantle and the next Overmare has been elected. That Overmare being you.

"You may have heard the holotape message from Scootaloo, which is entitled 'Welcome'. And I assume you've read the briefing report.

"I want you to know that, no matter what happens, you are not responsible for anything that may happen to the Stable's population.

"I am.

"You see, I've made some... adjustments to the plan. I've made sure that it's impossible to stop the experiment, no matter how hard you try. The only way to even begin to stop it is to destroy the vats... or kill everypony.

"Actually, scratch that, the only way to stop it is to kill everypony or force them out of the Stable - attempting to destroy the vats won't work and may, in fact, make things worse.

"Twilight Sparkle was an important mare, and we should honour her by allowing her to finish this one last experiment.

"That's all I have to add. Remember your duty. And good luck."

Click.

The storm of emotion from the doctor's log coalesced into anger. I grabbed the holotape, yanked it out of the PipBuck, and raised my hoof to throw it away... but decided that it wasn't worth it. Though... I began to question why I had been so nice to the dead body of the Overmare if she was so... so...

I looked at the last holotape. The label remained unmarked, and it did look fairly clean. Shrugging, I placed it in the slot and tapped 'play'. The tape was so quiet that I didn't think it was working at first, until I heard a little gasp and some sobbing.

"It's too late...

"The entire Stable... dead... because of some bitch of a Twilight fanfilly!"

Crash.

"How could she do this...? How could anypony do this...?

"When I became Overmare of the Stable, I didn't want to become the Overmare of a Stable who's slowly being poisoned with no cure... or a Stable where all the trained ponies who could fix this whole thing fled... or a Stable of zombies...

Ok, so the Overmare I had found wasn't the one who killed them all. Good.

I felt my eyelids growing heavy. Too much emotion, not enough sleep. I closed my eyes and let my head fall gently to the ground, hanging onto enough consciousness to finish the tape.

"I've... I've been having bad dreams... of the Stable. Not like it is now, though... really bad... some sort of zebra thingywhatsit... I don't know...

"If anypony finds this holotape, please... I just want to let whoever cares know... I'm sorry..."

The sound of a locker being opened, then shut quietly. Softly, the Overmare continued.

"...hush now, quiet now... time to lay your s-sleepy head..."

I'm not sure when I had fallen asleep, but the recording had stopped while I was asleep. I groggily opened an eye, and swatted the earbuds out of my sore ears with a hoof, before sitting up. Idly scratching my mane, I looked over to Final. She had rolled onto her back, and one of her forehooves hung limply over the edge.

"Final..." I softly said, before yawning. An ear twitch was the only response I got.

Groaning with frustration, I rose to my hooves and trotted a few steps to her. I was about to call her name out again when I caught odour of something strange.

The little damp patch on the blanket was all the evidence I needed.

I felt my face grow red and my wings stiffen a little. I turned away and hyperventilated, which only got worse as Final groaned and stretched.

"Oheeeyy Nimbus..." Finaly drawled, sitting up and scratching her mane. "Mornin'..."

"Morning!" I too-quickly replied.

Final was silent for a second. "You ok-"

"Fine fine yes good everything's fine!"

"...okaaaay..." Final muttered, yawning soon after. I dared to look back at her, and in the corner of my eye I saw her noticing the patch too.

"..."

"What? They were noisy."

"Too much info, Final!"

After that little embarrassment, and some light breakfast (no meat, which surprised the burly stallion who served us), Final and I set forth to the MAS hub. A guard was waiting for us at the gate to the sealed-off area we had to trek through, and kindly opened it for us. Final mentioned, probably not too wisely, that we didn't need to go through the gate to enter, but the guard mare just shrugged and stepped aside to let us past.

We had walked no less than a metre before one of the radgers tried to eat us. They were heavy, but couldn't take as much damage as I thought, as the puddle of glowing goo proudly displayed. The area itself was little more than browned and withered plants, with the only very occasional patch of green or, well, any living flora. A couple of piles of rubble that only vaguely hinted at a building once being there rested amongst the area, and the radgers themselves were wandering around. A half-stairwell, half-ramp made out of sheets of metal and piles of stone rose up into a hole in the rear of the building where part of the wall had collapsed or been blown off.

I nodded to my friend, and jumped up into the air, flapping my wings and hovering in place. Final followed suit, and we decided to skip fighting all the damn creatures and just land inside the building. The radgers made hissing noises as we flew over but otherwise did nothing.

The entrance itself was dimly lit, and already we spotted one body - a mare who had been pressing on a wound to her stomach, her back on the wall and her face still, eyes closed. I gave her a nod of my head, and I spotted a holotape next to her, a tiny splatter of blood on it. I gingerly picked it up and, bringing the PipBuck out, began playing it, making sure to not use the ear bloom so that Final could hear it.

I swear I would have a hundred of these things in a few months.

"Powder's mission log, tape one.

"I'm leaving this behind just in case we all die, which I have a horrible feeling we will. Still wondering why I took the mission.

"Anyway, getting in wasn't too hard, but Duck 'n' Cover took a nasty bite to the stomach. She's been bleeding out slowly, and we don't have any health potions because somepony broke them. Yes, I'm looking at you, Drop.

"Duck's almost dead, the doc says. Something about a mix of bloodloss and poisoning. I don't think radgers' are poisonous, but I could be wrong. Anyway, she's unable to move, and she can't speak, only grunt in pain. It's a horrible sight, but she's probably getting the best death out of us all.

"Yes, Drop, I'm morbid, now shut up and don't touch anything.

"So yeah, we're probably dead by now. Fortunately I asked to get paid up front first, so I had some fun last night.

"Well... see you, I guess."

The holotape clicked off. Final and I looked at each other, and I could sense she was thinking much the same as I was.

This wasn't going to be a simple mission.

Until now I had never seen a robot before. They were always some sort of geeky sci-fi thing to me. I knew they were real, but having not seen them, I had a hard time believing it.

The pony-shaped robot in front of me, the one who had been shooting a lot of laser bolts in my general direction, seemed keen on telling me that, yes, he did exist.

I ducked behind cover, silently cursing as another crimson line lanced past my head, sizzling the wall where my head had been not a second earlier. I dropped the spent energy cell from my rifle, and quickly fumbled with another, slotting it in cautiously. Sometimes I wish I had telekinesis or something.

Final, who was behind a piece of wall on the opposite side of the hall to me, gave me a worried look. I returned it with a sheepish grin, spinning around the corner to blast the robot a few more times. The casing was warped where it hit, and something inside made a pop, but it kept trotting along, zapping a couple more shots at me from its muzzle. It had taken quite a lot of damage already and it limped on one leg towards us.

My friend leaned out with the pistol in her mouth and let a few shots loose. One hit the head casing but aside from the distortion, it again did nothing. I did, however, spot the shots going a lot wider than they had.

"Stand back while this tresspasser is dealt with," the robot monotoned. I looked at Final again, waiting for one of her amazing lucky plans. She looked like she was struggling for one, and pulled out one of her plasma apple-grenades. As far as I knew, she only had three left.

"Should I-?"

"Do it!" I shouted back, waving a hoof in the direction of our artificial assailant.

She hesitated a moment, before dropping the plasma grenade and pulling out a similar one with a blue ring around the body. Neither of us really knew what they did, but if it was a grenade, it probably would so some damage. She bit off the stem and rolled it through the doorway.

A split second after it stopped rolling, the grenade exploded, but rather than a brilliant green pyrotechnic display, a sphere of lightning arced out. The hoof I accidentally had in range only felt a little tingly, but the robot sizzled and blarped before the head casing exploded, the rest of the body falling limp, smoke wafting from it.

Relief washed over me as Final laughed madly, drifting forwards and pulling parts from the robot. A few energy cells and a small pile of parts that looked like they could have some vague use was all that she could retrieve.

We chose to sneak through the rest of the building, taking the long way to the top floor as not to risk waking up more robots than we could handle at once - the moment they spotted us, they'd start looking for us, and if they all saw us...

From what we could tell, from the seventh storey up, the centre of the halls were cut in the centre, providing an open area which here the acrophobic ponies who worked here could be terrified of. In the centre of that area, at the bottom floor, was a long-dried-up fountain with a statue - from what I could tell it was one of a proud unicorn mare with a cutie mark similar to the one that had been placed on the building's front. I started wondering who it was; after I dealt with this area I'd have to go check it out.

As we walked, I found a couple of piles of ash, with some ballistic weapons laying beside them, a perforated robot in the corner of the room. Final quickly scooped the guns up, and I managed to find yet another holotape.

"Celestia-dammit, this is getting ridiculous.

"Already half our ponies have died; the doc and our hacker just now. Turns out there's a bunch of active robots in here who don't take kindly to ponies wandering the halls.

"Not only that, but there's some crazy motherfucker on the PA system who, aside from sounding completely insane, seems to think he's the robots' master or some shit. I dunno, it hurt just to hear him.

"Dyson thinks we should get the buck out of here, but I'm not leaving until I find that idiot on the PA and blow his brains over the wall. He can leave if he wants.

"...and he did. I have to admit, he's the smartest one of us. Not like 'brainy' smart like the late doc and Bypass, but just... smart. Honestly, I envy him.

"I should follow him... but I don't abandon a mission."

"Geez, what an idiot." Final muttered as she pocketed the energy cells from the robots.

I shrugged, crouching low again and sneaking forward. We had snuck past a couple of robots, though I was seriously tempted to shoot them while I could get a good shot in. Maybe damage that important-looking thing on their backs? I ignored my urge to scrap these robots and kept creeping forward. Final followed suit.

"Fools!" the PA system kicked into life with a screech. "How dare you tresspass in our territory! Do you know who you're dealing with?"

Final smirked and shouted "nnnope!" It sounded kind of pathetic in comparison, but I found myself grinning.

"You are in the home of Omnipotentius, the All-Mighty God of Vanhoover and the Master of Mechanical Monstrosities! Kneel before the might of our legions of Roboponies!"

The only robot in sight walked off the edge of a walkway, plummeting down and shattering on the floor.

"Uh-That one was a traitor! We commanded it to walk off the edge as punishment for his crimes! Crimes you will be disintegrated for!"

Final and I gave each other confused glances before we both burst out into laughter.

"Silence!"

We couldn't stop laughing. My sides hurt, and Final had tears in her eyes.

"Silence, I say!"

"Ahahaha- oh gosh, stop, I can't- hahahah!" Final barely squeaked.

"...Very well, if you won't be silent, I'll make you be silent!"

The threat would have been all the more serious if it weren't for the fact he seemed utterly incompetent. Almost nothing would stop us from laughing our haunches off.

'Almost nothing' took the form of a trundling bastard child of a tank and robopony, with a missile pod on its back and a giant chest-mounted gun pointing right at us.

Final's smile instantly dropped.

"Fuck."

"Have I ever mentioned how much I hate robots?" I grumbled as I slammed the door to the room shut.

"Three times from when that motherbucker appeared," Final replied curtly. The sudden and strong vibrations on the walls and doors told us that a) this robot was still shooting at us, and b) this room's exterior surfaces were heavily reinforced. That being said, I was starting to worry that this room would be dislodged as the walls and rooves around it were sundered.

"Ok, seriously, how the fuck do we kill something like that?"

"Drop a box-car over it?" I suggested.

"Who in their right mind would do something so stupid?" Final sharply retorted, before emitting a short laugh. "Well, aside from me."

"I'm sure somepony's done it before."

"You'd have to be pretty damn strong to do it."

"That's tr- look, can we focus on the robot and not dropping box-cars on things?"

Final snickered. She reached into her bag and pulled out the last two of our pulse grenades. "These look like they'll do some damage, but we really should have more."

I looked about the room properly. Old worn posters hung off the wall, all advertising MAS's supremacy. A few desks lay around with broken terminals on them. And, in the corner, with a trail of blood leading from the door and across the walls, was the limp body of a stallion, curled up on the wall. I trotted over to him as Final began picking through the desks and containers in the corner.

The stallion, unfortunately, was lifeless and still, but I could tell it was recent enough a death that he hadn't begun rotting yet. In his hooves he had a few objects curled against him - a gun with such a ridiculously high caliber that it looked like it was designed to fire tin cans, a holotape (yay, more holotapes) and a framed photograph. I gingerly pulled the holotape out and, seeing a perfect opportunity to listen, I played it.

"D-damn... bullet through the lung... not fatal... not yet...

"Ok, maybe I should've followed Dyson... save my skin... get back to my family... Goddesses, I miss my family...

"They need to know how I died... even if it's a stupid way to die-"

A series of wet coughs.

"Blood... damn... not a surprise, though...

"Well... I'm the only one left. That sentry bot tore everypony else to pieces. Drop barely spoke a word before his head went flying.

"So... this is it... this is how I die... alone, in a room, with an equicidal robot trying to get to me...

"Heh... heh heh... mamma always said I would do great things... bet she's rolling in her grave now...

"Maybe papa should've named me 'Morbid' after all...

"Well... if you've managed to get this far... please, grab One in One Mill... and the 40mm pulse grenades by my hooves... and send my regards to that giant robot...

"Oh... and if you manage to swing by Harmony, tell my parents I'm an idiot. Give them the holotapes too.

"Too weak to go out fighting... wuss... maybe I'll just sit here and s-"

More horrible coughing.

"ngh... singing's a terrible idea... maybe I'll just... take... a nap...

"Good night, everypony. Thanks for listening..."

Click.

I should stop listening to depressing holotapes.

I looked around the pony's hooves. A couple of rounded-tipped tubes as wide as a tin can lay by his hindlegs. Carefully slipping the grenade launcher thing from his hooves, I also looked at the photograph. The picture was fairly faded, but it depicted a large orange stallion, a yellow unicorn mare next to him, and what appeared to be the tiny version of this stallion, who if I recalled was called Powder, grinning gleefully at the camera.

At least he had a mother to look after him.

I stood up, turning to Final. She took one look at the grenade rifle, and the blue-banded grenades, and a manic grin came over her.

The sentry bot was fairly easy to take down once it had given up looking for us. We just snuck behind it, and we both tossed as many pulse grenades as we could by its treads. The thing virtually exploded, which was quite a sight to behold.

After that, we skirted around most of the robots until we found a room labelled 'ROBOT CONTROL CENTRE'. The terminal was hard to crack, but with Final and I both working on it, we finally managed to get through. There wasn't, unfortunately, and 'off' function, just a 'remove friend/foe targeting data' function. Pressing that, I was blissfully surprised to hear the robots turn upon themselves. Final and I high-winged in celebration.

"What are you- No! Stop! Why are you all shooting each other?! You're not supposed to- Dammit, can't you useless pieces of scrap do anything useful?!"

Turns out we had pissed off this 'Omnipotentius' a lot.

I turned to Final, who seemed mesmerised by the fading blips on her EFS. "Alright, now, we go after the God."

She blinked and her attention was on me again. "Where is he?"

I thought for a moment, looking around. The sounds of lasers finally died down, and only two blips remained. "He should be either above us or that way." I pointed in the general direction of one of the red spots - a couple of floors down.

I poked my head out, and the blip that was on the lower levels was, in fact, a plodding, damaged protectapony which humerously was walking into a wall. Ok, seriously, were all damaged robots this incompetent?

The two of us took to the air again, skipping the stairs, and landed on the highest level of the tower. The red dot was hovering just behind a particular door. I motioned for Final to stay put and cover me while I snuck forward, pushing the door open a little bit to see inside.

I was surprised not to see a pony at a desk, but a corpse, it's coat and skin flaked and bare. He was an earth pony (emphasis on was), and he was sitting in a remarkably tense position, which was strange for a dead body.

I saw him move.

I saw him move!

The corpse pressed a button on the microphone in front of him. "Ok, so you have bested my robot armies, but can you best... me!?"

And with a laugh, the more-energetic-than-shambling rotting body ran off somewhere.

I flung the door open, calling out to it to stop running away, but my hoof stopped on something cold and metallic.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Oh."

BEEP BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

BEBEEBEEPEEBEEBEBEPEEBBEEBEEP

The floor was coated in mines.

BEEPBEEPBEEPBEBEEBEBEEEPBEBPBEPEBEEPBEEPBEEP

"Oh, come on!" I said as I started backpedalled.

I didn't backpedal fast enough.

Level Up!

New Perk: Pathfinder - You know your way around a map. You have, when fast travelling, a 20% time reduction.

Author's Note

Explosions, violence, adult themes, swearing, depressing holotapes and sexual things. Just another day in the Vanhoover Wasteland, heh heh heh.

So yeah, another new chapter for you all to enjoy :twilightsmile: . Since I forgot the chapter last week, this might seem a little early to post it, but hey, everyone likes early posts! Please leave your thoughts, critiques and compliments down below.

Also, here's a bit of art I drew for the second chapter of the story. Thought I'd put it up now just so y'all can see. (Clicking on the picture will take you to DeviantART where the picture won't be so massive.)

Again, thanks to Sigma, Tonto and Filthma for the prereading. Wait. Did Tonto and Filthma even get to look at this? I'm sure I sent them the link... either way, thanks to them for reading through it ^^ Also, thanks to Somber and Kkat for the stories they wrote that inspired me to write this piece, and you guys for reading it!

5 - It's Not The Fall That Kills You

Fallout: Equestria - Purity

A Fo:E side story by StormbadgerXIII

Chapter 5 - It's Not The Fall That Kills You

"Gravity? Who gives a crap about gravity?"

The world exploded. Twice, by my count.

The first, about 200 years ago, the whole of Equestria burned under the necromantic fire of the balefire bombs.

The second, just now, this room saw fit to be consumed in a ball of flame and shrapnel. And promptly send me flying.

I would have let my instincts kick into action and stabilise myself, but tiny shards of metal tore through the front part of my body, an immense wave of pressure rattled my teeth and threw me off my hooves. My wings snapped out to save me from tumbling, but the force of the blast knocked me onto something thin and very solid, and I heard something break and a horrible pain through my feathered appendages.

The next thing I knew, I was sent spinning down, once again in the grip of gravity. My ears were ringing, I had tiny infernos all throughout my forehooves and face, and I could barely breathe.

I barely saw the statue of the unicorn come into sight, my body falling towards the pointiest part, before I felt a weight lift from my shoulders as my body sent me into a unconsciousness.

"Daddy, look!"

I was standing on the roof of my house in a body that was familiar to me, but smaller than I remembered. I gave a glance to my sides, seeing my small wings standing proud. I peeked over the edge of the roof, looking at the ground below; it looked soft but I knew it was as solid as stone... whatever stone felt like. It was a thing ponies said.

My daddy, as requested, looked up from where he was sitting at the roof, looking back down before snapping his head up again, eyes popped open wide. "Nimbus! What are you doing up there?!"

"I can fly, daddy! Look!" I said, as I took a step forward to the ledge.

As fast as Daddy was, I was faster. Older ponies always seemed slower. Squeezing my eyes shut, I jumped off the edges and flapped my wings as hard as I could, feeling my body fall faster than I wanted.

I swear I was almost hovering, when I landed in a pair of light green hooves. I opened my eyes and looked up at the big stallion holding me, his face all funny and angry.

"Nimbus, what were you thinking?!"

"I almost flew, daddy! Did you see me?"

"I saw you nearly hit the ground and break something," he snapped. I recoiled, taken back by his fury. "Nimbus, you know your wings need to be a bit bigger before you can fly, right?"

"B-but they are bigger!" I squeaked, opening my wings, trying to show him. "See?"

Daddy frowned. "They've still got a little bit to go."

"When can I fly?"

He was silent for a moment. "Well... I couldn't fly until I was a few years older than you."

A few years...? But that was forever away! I might as well not be able to fly! "B-but F-Final can f-fly!"

This time, his quiet lasted a little longer. I sniffled a little. "Son... some ponies learn to fly faster than other ponies. Final's one of them."

"But it's not fair! I wanna fly!" I wailed before wrapping my hooves around his chest, sobbing and repeating my words until they became nothing but mumbling. Daddy hugged me, and I could almost feel his sympathy, not that I knew that word yet.

"Remember, Nimbus. You may be missing out on what a lot of ponies take for granted, but there's one thing we both have that almost nopony else has."

I looked up at him, puffy eyed. "W-what?"

He placed a hoof on my small chest, and smiled back at me. "A good and caring heart. Not everypony cares about more than themselves." Holding me close again, he whispered softly in my ear.

"When you grow up, remember that some ponies will want to harm you, some will want to help you, but most just look out for their own."

He pulled back, and we both looked at each other. Smiling, he placed me down on my rump. "Still, at least you didn't fall very fast, so your wings are getting bigger."

I squealed in delight. Doubly so when he offered to buy me some delicious ice cream.

I can't decide what left a bigger imprint on me that day - that my daddy gave me ice cream after I nearly killed myself, or his whispered words.

Until I joined the Enclave, it was probably the former.

There a number of ways to die.

There's the eternally desired one, old age. Where your body, having run its full course, slowly starts shutting down. It's a good death, because in a lot of cases, you feel like you've fulfilled your destiny and you can fade into the light. Sadly, not many ponies get that luxury these days.

There's death by disease, a foreign organism entering your body and multiplying rapidly, tearing you apart from the inside. Not a very happy death, really. Sometimes, the disease won't kill you, but will leave you scarred and calloused, resistant to its next attack.

There's accidental death. Falling onto something dangerous, falling off something, getting hit by falling objects, something sent flying your way, dropping electrical appliances into water... unpredictable, deadly, sneaky, but it happens. Tragic, but you can't stop accidents happening.

There's suicide. Less said about that, the better.

There's death in battle, which in itself can differ - were you just shot by the other guy, or did you take more of them out through your death? It can be unpleasant, but it can also be purposeful, depending on circumstances.

Then there's the sort of death that you can't put into any category, such as being hurled off a 100-storey building by three dozen mines and falling onto the horn of a statue of Twilight Sparkle. Which, I might add, is a very very very fucking rare occurrence.

As it stands, it didn't happen.

I slowly peeled an eye open, then another. I found myself lying on a bed, amourless, unarmed, tired, thirsty and in an amount of pain I really didn't think possible. A tray to my right had several shards of metal, red-tinted, laying on it in a pool of blood along side a medical tool set.

I tried to say "why aren't I dead?" or "where am I?" (one of the two, I'm sure), but instead it ended up sounding like "uuuurgh..."

"Ah, good afternoon," a mare to my right said cheerily. "How are we today?"

"Uuugh... awful..."

"At least you're alive," the mare chimed, trotting over. Her mane was annoyingly pink, her coat a light lavender, and she wore a smile across her muzzle. "Thanks to your little friend."

"Final." I smiled. Then, after a moment. "What happened anyway...?"

"As far as I recall, you were about three metres away from a mine with a 5 meter blast radius, and several of them if the explosion I heard earlier is any indication; they exploded, you were sent flying into a railing, wings first, then fell down and lost consciousness. Your friend caught you before you were impaled on a statue."

"She's always been a better flyer," I muttered.

"Not to mention the other injuries from laser weapons and bruises, the radiation exposure, the exposure to raw magic..." She smiled. "Honestly, I'm surprised you've survived this much."

"Me too..." I added, then tried to move. My legs felt like they were burning, my wings lay limp by my side. I fell back down to the bed, panting from the effort.

"You need to rest," the doctor added. "You've been through some pretty serious trauma."

Why did I get the feeling that this wasn't the worst I'd encounter...?

The doctor left my side for a few minutes, returning with Final in tow.

"Nimbus!" Final shrieked. I winced at the volume - my ears were really sore. Guess being close to three dozen explosions can kinda make you a little more sensitive to noise. "Are you ok?"

"Never better," I coughed, probably looking a pretty nasty sight. My torso was already cocooned in bandages, and from what I could see there were several blood-stained ones off to the side.

"Your friend will need a day's bed-rest before he can move again. More if he wants to function properly."

"We can manage a day or two, right?" Final said, looking at me. I nodded.

"Excellent. I'm sorry, Nimbus, but we need to move you to another bed. There are likely to be a few others who will need attention in the next few days and I need room."

"That's ok, I understand," I croaked. The mare pointed a horn at me, and it started glowing. I felt a strange tingling over my body, and soon I was hovering above the bed. My body wanted to flail to get out of this unnatural circumstance, but I was too sore to do so.

Instead, I just whimpered.

I really didn't want Final to see me like this, half-mummified, unable to move, and groaning from a horrible pain across my entire body. But I knew I had little choice in the matter - I couldn't stop being like this, no amount of healing potions could fix it. Final was trotting beside me, smiling warmly, almost as if that would heal me. I couldn't quite look back at her, so I tried my best and smiled to her.

Soon, I was lowered onto a bed in a separate room and left there. The doctor told Final that if anything was happening to me, she was to come and grab her and fix me up. And, once again complimenting my survivability, she left the room.

And then there was silence.

The bed was nice and soft, which didn't seem very common. A lot better than lying on the floor like last night. The room itself was dimly lit, a few shafts of orange light poking through the boarded-up windows, and it all made me feel drowsy. The room was dead silent, except for the two ponies breathing in the room and some voices from outside. The bed turned out to be double-sized, too - plenty of room to move, not that I really could anyway.

Final was the first to speak. "Nimbus... I'm sorry..."

"For what?" I managed to say, twisting my neck to face her.

"For... well... getting you into this mess." She turned away from me, some of her orange-gold mane falling across her eye.

"Hey... don't worry; it's not your fault," I said comfortingly, smiling while I looked over to her. "I'm pretty damn sure I was the one who took the job."

"No no no..." she said, shaking her head. "I mean, I was the one who convinced you to go down here... so, technically all of this is because of me."

I balked at that. She was right; she was the one who had told me to go down and help the ponies down here, and that hadn't gone quite to plan yet. But I knew I would have come here by myself without her help.

Or would I? Truth be told, without Final's support, I would have spent a long time, weeks even, thinking about whether I should come down here or not. And if I did, I'd probably go looking for my father directly. And, ultimately, no matter what we do, we'd probably end up lying in a pool of our own blood. But, at least I could feel... useful down here. Like I actually meant something. Soldiers in the Enclave got perks, yes, but we weren't really involved in any fighting. But down here... what I could do could make a pony's life better. If I did one job for a struggling town, then they could move forward. Start setting up better defences, gain access to more resources. Hell, if I decided to take out a camp of raiders, then that was at least a service to them.

I finally found my voice. "Yes, Final. This is your fault." At her confused and hurt expression, I continued. "But I can help down here. I can't help up there. I'd rather be dead and do something useful than be alive and doing nothing."

Despite my body flaring up in protest, she wrapped me up in a hug I so desperately wished I could return.

I told Final, despite her wanting to do otherwise, that there was a whole other side to the bed she could sleep on so she didn't have to sleep on the floor. As a result, she was now curled up under a blanket, snoring softly and adorably. She had said, before going to sleep, that the mayor had provided our payment while I was out of it, of which I was instantly thankful for.

Damn, she's cute... I found myself thinking. I couldn't see her very well on account of my neck not being able to bend that far, but from what I could see, her mane had splayed out onto the bed, her eyes were shut and her mouth just open. If I wasn't so immobile, I'd probably hug her.

I knew I needed to sleep. My mind and body both wanted it. Yet... I couldn't sleep. Something was keeping me awake, and I had no idea what. I had listened to all the holotapes. I couldn't actually move more than my neck, now that I thought about it. Or, more accurately, I could, but my body would protest like hell and I didn't want to wake Final up with me screaming in pain.

Why wasn't I given any painkillers?

I found a dose of Med-X lying on the bedside table. A leg's reach away.

I was so close to temporary salvation, and yet I couldn't get it.

Fuck.

I groaned and looked back up at the ceiling. I felt tired, but I couldn't sleep. I so desperately wanted to sleep, but... there was no way.

Instead, I decided to amuse myself, and think.

Who was that moving corpse? I asked myself. Was he a mindless zombie? Well, ok, not mindless, but a sentient, insane zombie. If so, who was he? Was he somepony famous? Was he somepony normal? Why did he have so many mines? How'd he hack the robots? How'd I even manage to hack the robots? I'm terrible when it comes to computers. Seriously, there must be something he messed up.

I spent about two hours asking myself too many questions (at one point one was about toast), before I finally fell into sleep.

"Nimbus."

I opened my eyes. This time, I was lying on a cloud in the middle of the sky. How'd I even get here? I'm sure there was some way I got here. I looked at my limbs - I could move them, for one, and all my bandages had gone. I looked around, rising to my hooves. All around were a number of clouds, all forming to form a line in front of me. I swear I heard some tinkling music somewhere, but that might have just been my imagination.

"Nimbus."

A soft, gentle voice. Like silk. Or chocolate. Either way, it soothed my sore ears. And it was coming from down the path of clouds. I found my hooves walking forward, and I stopped myself. What if this was a trap? What if this was some form of ambush set up by the Enclave to capture me, or worse, raiders with some magic up their sleeves? I didn't fancy on becoming dinner.

"Don't be afraid, Nimbus."

"Why not?" I replied, in a softer tone than I had expected.

"Nothing can harm you here."

I blinked. As I trotted down the path, I hoped she was right. More clouds kept forming a straight line as I kept trotting forwards. A glance backward told me they were simply the same clouds from the very back of the line.

In a brilliant flash of light, something coalesced on the other end of the cloud path. The form was that of a pony. It was at least my height, and had a pair of resplendent wings. The light faded, and in its place stood a tall, proud mare with wings... and a horn.

That was new.

"Who are you?" I asked ('what are you' would have been rude.)

"I am your dream mare," she said. After my confused glance, she continued. "I am the mare that represents your dreams. Your wishes. Your desires."

"Oh," I dumbly added. Who knew my dreams were so... pretty?

The spectre of the alicorn mare looked away, a long lock of golden mane falling over her blue eyes. That seemed familiar... "It pains me to know you will most likely forget this encounter soon. But I am but a dream."

"If this is a dream... and I know it's a dream..." I thought out loud, though mostly directly to her. "Then why haven't I woken up?"

"Because the dream hasn't finished," she replied with a voice that could melt the coldest hearts. "There is something I need to tell you..."

I'm talking to a damn pretty mare who just so happens to be my dreams. What the actual fuck. was the thought that popped into my head at that moment.

The dream mare trotted up to me. "Your exposure to the raw magic has allowed me to become more than a collection of afterthoughts. However, this will not last long, and there is much to say."

"Very well," I said coolly.

She sighed, probably utterly underwhelmed by presence. That, or she was readying herself for something really important. Either way, I had to listen to this.

"The wing will steer you right, the horn will shine so bright, the hoof will cast aside doubt, the mask will sense traitors out. When three becomes one and one becomes one million, harmony will force its hand and show the way to a brighter day. A father's son's father will make one, the remnant of the past will make another. The eastern wings will come to you but only if you let them. The eyes above look down with greed, only wishing doom upon us all. The tumult of 2000 years remains in the south, the milk of the breast of disorder a brew so potent. A father's son's hero made the journey the son is on. Stripes of pink and mane of gold will anchor you to the ground, but with chains not of metal but of love. When one million acquire three the hooves of Vanhoover will rise as one and with claw and wing send three crashing down. And, most importantly..." The alicorn poked me in the chest. "A father's words steer the son to a better light, despite him hoping it would not on fear of the opposite."

I blinked. "Can... you say that less cryptically?"

"No."

"No?" I raised an eyebrow.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I cannot."

I rolled my eyes. "Some help that is."

The alicorn frowned at me, and I instantly regretted what I said. "Would you prefer to stumble around in the dark?" I shook my head. "Good. But, if there is one thing I can clarify... trust in all your companions."

"What, all of Final?"

"And the others."

"What others?"

"You will see."

I frowned. "Alright. By the way, could you write all of that down? My memory-"

The alicorn smiled to herself. "I already have. 110347."

I tilted my head.

"Check your PipBuck," the alicorn drawled.

I nodded. "So... is that it?"

"I'm afraid it is." The alicorn sounded... resigned. Almost sad. "I both wish I could talk again with you, and that we don't."

"Huh?"

"Your body being exposed to too much magic was enough to cause my appearance. It is also the magic which allowed me to... sense..." Obviously she couldn't think of a better word. I probably wouldn't be able to either. "...the currents of fate. I fear for your health if you attempt to speak to me again."

"Oh."

The alicorn turned away from me. After a brief thought, I trotted up to her. "Wait!"

"Hm?"

"Do you have a name?"

The alicorn was silent for a long while. Almost to the point that I thought I offended her.

"Dream."

"That's it?"

"That's all I know."

"Oh, ok. Dream it is."

The alicorn giggled. Giggled. I found that both undeniably cute and a little freaky that my dreams were giggling at what I said. This was slowly climbing to the highest point of my 'whatthefuckometer'.

"Do you know where I'm supposed to go next?"

"Head down the path of 113."

"Ambiguous."

"I cannot do much better."

"I know."

She began to walk again, for a full five seconds, then she turned back and trotted up to me. "Actually... there is one last thing I can give you."

"Oh?"

The alicorn placed a hoof on my cheek. "A moon of full rest."

"What-"

My next words were silenced by a kiss. Damn, my dreams were a good kisser.

As I felt myself falling back to normal world, I just realised one thing.

My dreams looked a lot like Final.

What the fuck.

"Nimbus?"

I blinked away my sleep, and found myself in the same room, with a little bit more light. I had no EFS to tell me what time it was, and the PipBuck we found was elsewhere.

Final was also on top of me.

My first thought was "why aren't I in horrible pain yet?"

My second thought was "oh god she's on top of me in a compromising position."

"Final, get off please."

She did so with a flap of her wings. Then it dawned on her too. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I didn't realise-"

"It's fine," I said, sitting up and rubbing my mane wait what? "It happens."

"Are you ok?" she asked. "I mean, I did inject that syringe into you when you were asleep to try and make it better for you and that was a few hours ago you were fast asleep-"

"Final," I said.

"Yes?"

"It's ok. I'm not hurt." I looked at my hooves. "In fact, I feel pretty good."

"Wow." My golden-maned companion smiled. "Awesome."

"I know, ri-” I started, but froze.

Golden mane. Chain of love.

That was... troubling.

"Nimbus?"

"Weird dream. Just remembered something that happened," I half-lied.

"Ok, if ya say so."

I stretched my forehooves, then rolled out of bed and stretched my hindlegs too. I then noticed my saddlebags and armour. A little rummaging later, I pulled out the PipBuck, and I scanned through all the files.

I opened it up. Sure enough, Dream's cryptic speech was there. I read through it a few times, just to make sure I got the wording right. Still confusing as hell, but at least I knew some of it.

Some of it seemed to make sense... or, at least, half of some of it. Most of it seemed like nonsense to me.

"Done staring at that tiny screen?" Final asked, a smirk on her face. I slipped the PipBuck back into my saddlebags. "Good. Now, you wanna rest here or do you want to just get going?"

"Let's go," I grinned.

The doctor seemed utterly surprised by my recovery. She also added that we were from a healthy origin, ex-military, and pegasi, so we had a good immune system, trained toughness and perhaps a boosted restorative thingy. I doubted the last one. After checking I was ok, we were sent on our way.

Once we exited the doctor's office, Final immediately asked "where to now?"

"As far as I know, 'the path of 113'."

"Huh?" Final asked, bemused. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

I shrugged. "We can ask around. See what the number 113 means."

"If ya want. Don't let me stop you."

I was about to continue, but something loud and dangerous-sounding rang from above.

It's said that 90% of ponies don't look up unless prompted to. They usually look across one axis, or down. Pegasi live with the ability to move in a three-dimensional environment, so we tend to consider all directions as important.

Regardless, everypony was looking up at where the noise came from.

One of the smaller, white stars on the skyscraper's hub, which had been dangling from a number of cables and a bent chunk of metal support, finally snapped loose and started falling to the ground.

It took a while, but everypony scattered from the centre. All except three - a mare, a stallion, and what seemed like their foal.

Judging quickly, I guessed the star was going to hit them. And it wouldn't be pretty.

Final and I looked at each other, and we instantly rushed in, ponies off to the side calling out the names of the ponies in the centre.

I grabbed the foal as quickly as I could, swooping back to grab the mare. Final had managed to shove the stallion out of the way.

I screamed at the mare to run. She span and began galloping.

Too late.

The star didn't fall flat. It fell point-first. Driving down through the mare's back to the ground like a wedge, the poor green pony was bisected gruesomely. I couldn't stop myself, and I slammed straight into the white star itself, knocking my head and getting stars in my eyes.

When I finally came back properly, I realised my hooves were caked in blood.

I backed away. I had landed on the mare's hind end, which wasn't attached to anything, blood and entrails across the cobblestone ground.

I saw the mare's front half move, crawling a little bit forward, before she finally collapsed, blood flowing from her back and mouth.

I vomited. Or screamed. Or both.

I think it was both.

The barponies were kind enough to give me some free alcohol and a warm blanket to wrap myself in. The painkillers for my headache had just worn off, and while I did feel better I still felt sore. My hooves were washed clean, but I still felt like they were caked in blood. I nestled a glass of whisky in my hooves. I was half-drunk, shaking, and I wasn't even talking to anypony.

I was, however, listening to the barkeeper and Final talking.

"Your buckfriend gonna be ok?" the barkeeper asked. He was a pretty old buck, about sixty, I reckon, with a grey mane and brown coat, and some fairly impressive scars across his face.

"He's not my buckfriend, he's my friend. And I'm sure he'll be ok... maybe."

"Seems like he got hit hard. Hell, I don't think Toffee's buck is as shaken. Nor the kid."

"Really? Even though they lost a family member?"

"Probably has something to do with their daughter dying earlier this month."

"Ouch."

"Tell me about it. But no, seriously, your friend gonna be ok?"

"I think so. He's a strong pony. He has to be."

"If I were where he was, I probably go insane."

"He saw raiders earlier. And, one of their... um... 'art' rooms."

"Fuck... wow, ok.. How long ya been down here anyway?"

"This is our third day."

"Goddesses. Well, hopefully this'll be the worst y'all will see down here."

"I hope so. I think I'm coping fine, but... I worry for Nimbus."

I felt like shit. Not only was I witness to one of the most gruesome, horrific deaths possible, but I was acting like a pathetic pony, curled up in a blanket, shaking like mad, and drinking away my horror.

I hate the Wasteland. I fucking hate it.

"You sure you're ok, miss?"

"I'll be fine. I'll just tough it out."

"Ya sure? It's real bad holding these things in, ya know. One day you're gonna break."

"Eh, that's not likely to happen any time soon."

"If ya say so."

Final leaned over to me. "Nimbus...?"

I slowly turned my own head to face her. "Y-yes...?"

"Are you ok?"

"...no." I whispered.

Final pulled me into a hug again, and thank goodness I could return it.

After a long while, after I had once again sobbed my heart out, Final pulled away. I felt so much better for it, though... I wish I hadn't had done it in front of everyone. I could hear them talk about me. One part of me was sure it wasn't bad, but I really didn't want to show it.

"By the way," Final asked, turning to the barkeeper and folding some of her mane behind her ear. "Does the number '113' mean anything to you?"

The barkeeper thought for a moment. "One-one-three... one-one-three...-one thirte- ah!" He clopped his hoof on the counter. "Stable 113. It's about a day's trot from here, taking the south-east road."

Another Stable? Fuck that. I didn't want to go to another-

"Though, can't see why y'all'd wanna go there. They ain't gonna let anypony in, ya know."

"It's functional?" Final asked.

"Ayep, and thriving. Though they ain't keen on sharin' some of their bounty with us."

"A functioning Stable..." I muttered. "...at least it won't be a nightmare down there."

"Ran into 73 didja?"

I looked up at him.

"Some'a them ponies came here about 10... no... 20? years ago. Told us about what was goin' on. Decided we should keep our guys away from it."

"Most of our loot came from there," Final mentioned.

"You could make a business off sellin' loot from dangerous places, ya know. Mighty tidy profit."

"I suppose. Or we do that off the side when we're not trying to be useful."

"Up to y'all what ya do. Just providin' options."

I finally found the strength to stand up. It was more taxing than it should have been. "We should probably get going, Final."

Final nodded, standing up and hoofing some bottlecaps over to the bartender. "Here. For the help."

The bartender smiled warmly, hoofing the caps down. "Well, I weren't fixing for payment, but I guess if you're offering... thanks. Y'all keep safe now, an' watch yourselves on the roads."

Nodding, I moved to the little colt's room, slipped into my armour, donned my weapons, and, after some asking for directions, we exited out of the city of Vanhoover, down the path to Stable 113...

"...and let me tell you, that was one long trot," Nimbus said, his voice starting to get a little rough from his talking. It was doing him a world of good to get his story out, to finally release much of the emotional toil that had been building up inside of him over the past ten years. He was only 31 but he felt 40.

Of course, considering he was talking to a colt who didn't even have his cutie mark, he had opted out much of the adult content, only providing some when asked. Fortunately, the foal was a good listener and didn't pressure him too much.

"Wooooow..." Happy muttered. "That's awesoooome."

Nimbus smiled, nickering happily to himself.

Now began the questions.

"How'd you get the PipBuck? What happened to your ear? Why is your leg all whirry? What happened to Fi-"

A hoof pressed to his lips stopped him before he could continue. The wizened buck was smiling, though there seemed to be a little bit of sadness in his eyes.

"Don't worry. You'll find out. Excuse me, bartender?"

The bartender, an old buck (a miracle of this day and age) with some scars across his muzzle, looked up. "Ayep?"

"Could I have the usual, please?"

"I ain't never seen ya before, I reckon," the bartender muttered.

"The wings didn't do it?"

The bartender's eyes widened. "Wait, is that... Nimbus, m'boy!"

"Hey Tank."

"Man, been a while since you walked in here last."

"Yeah, about an hour," Nimbus quipped, prompting a number of laughs from the croud.

"Heh heh. Alright, one Nukascotch coming up."

"Thank you." Nimbus nodded. "Oh, and perhaps something for Happy, too?"

"Sunrise Sar... sarsa... that yummy stuff!"

"Alrighty then."

Nimbus smiled. "As a treat."

"Thank you, mister!" Happy chimed. Then, something dawned on him. Something good. It was only 8, and his friends would still be awake. Without warning, he zoomed off.

Nimbus just blinked. "Wow. Speedy little guy, isn't he."

"Ayup. That's my grandson for ya," Tank muttered, floating over two glasses, making dead sure the alcoholic one went to Nimbus. "Cute little guy, ain't he?"

"Mhm."

"Welp, I might close the bar early tonight."

Nimbus raised an eyebrow.

"I wanna see how ya saved Vanhoover."

"You already have, Tank," Nimbus added, smirking.

"From your eyes," Tank added, pointing a hoof at the organs in questions.

The blue pegasus buck chuckled a little. "Ah, alright."

A few minutes later, Happy returned.

And about ten other foals as well.

"He's a talkative pony." Tank smirked.

"I gathered," Nimbus added, a bemused expression on his face.

Happy bounced up to the table. "I told my friends how awesome you were and how they have to hear your story and... and... yeah!"

Nimbus looked to all the foals. One of them looked bored, a few eager, some seemed to be here just for want of entertainment.

The blue buck smiled to himself. "Alright then. I'll keep going then..."

Level Up!

New Perk: Toughness - Your experiences in the Wasteland have toughened you. You gain +10% DR.

Quest Perk Added: Dream Mare - Every time you are exposed to copious amounts of magic or magical energy, in addition to the normal effects, when you sleep you also count as sleeping in an owned bed and thus count as 'Well Rested' upon awakening and heal half your current damage in addition to other natural healing. Note that magic does not include radiation or taint.

Author's Note

Things are only gonna get better after this, I swear/hope. I've got plans for up to chapter 20 or so, so if I get off my arse and write it then things'll go well.

Thanks to Filthma, Tonto and Sigma for pre-reading, Kkat for Fallout Equestria, Somber for Project Horizons, and, of course, you for reading :twilightsmile:

1 - The Saviours of Equestria

Fallout: Equestria - Purity
A Fo:E side story by StormbadgerXIII

Chapter 1 - The Saviours of Equestria

"You're going down!"

"In history, maybe!"

The sun.

A great big burning ball of hydrogen and helium. A source of warmth, a source of light. A symbol of all that Equestria was, bright and ever-lasting, ever-constant. To see the sun while on the surface was a rare and much-remembered event, the warming glow evaporating all fears and invigorating all hopes; just for a split second you could forget there was a wasteland stretching indefinitely around you.

For me, it was just there.

You see, I grew up in a town by the name of Feathertip, which was located on top of the cloud layer that covers the wasteland. Needless to say, the town was primarily made of clouds, as all pegasus localities are. It's a cheap and abundant building material, easily replaceable and everywhere else. The sun shone down every day, warming the coat and feathers. The blue sky was always open and inviting. It was a nice, comfortable place, temperatures ranging from 10 to 35 degrees centigrade, almost always sunny (occasionally we'd have a bit of rain to keep the clouds damp). It was a great, peaceful, beautiful and comfortable place to live, the only worry being what you were going to feed the kids or how much you had to study for something. Most of the ponies were well-mannered, and the presence of the Enclave made sure that there was always peace.

You'd wonder why I'd ever want to leave that near-perfect life behind to go down into the wasteland below.

My last morning in Feathertip began with a buzzing noise, like every other morning.

I was in the deep throes of sleep; I had decided to go to bed early the night before, as I had been studying for the past week for the exam into becoming a corporal. I had done well on the exam, as many others had said I would, but I still had to put the effort in. I grumbled, rolling to my other side, pressing annoyingly - not to mention painfully - on my wing. Grunting from the pain and effort, I reached up to the pre-war alarm clock and pushed the snooze button, before falling back down and closing my eyes again. This happened a few more times before I finally gave up, the alarm clock winning its battle as I lifted my head off my pillow and yawned. I knew I looked a mess, and today was supposed to be the day I became a corporal.

Not as prestigious as Sergeant Major, like my father, but it was a step towards it.

I floated to the shower, taking care to make sure I looked good enough. One of my hairs wouldn't go down, no matter how hard I tried. I quickly grabbed something to eat, got into my nice, neatly pressed and folded uniform and flew out the door.

The sun shone down on my coat and mane, and I could feel the water from the shower evaporating off it. I grinned, taking a breath of the fresh morning air, before drifting along to the Enclave base.

I was feeling pretty good. I was going up in the Enclave, and soon I would be following in my father's footsteps. Dad had once told me 'don't be what I want you to be, but be what you want to be'. Holding that to my heart, I decided I wanted to be like him – he was kind, caring, friendly and pretty scary in combat, even in our playful fights and training exercises. You'd have to have known him and fought him to really believe it. He was someone I aspired to be like. Not only that, but after my mum had died, when I was about one year old, he was the only family I had. And I really didn't want to make him feel like I was a waste of space.

I drifted along, lost in thought, as another thing crossed my mind - being a higher rank meant I also got paid a little more, which means I could start living more independently. I smiled at the thought. I didn't need to worry Dad about having to pay for anything of mine.

The large white building that was the Feathertip Enclave base came into view, and I quickly alighted near the front. Flying around in the air, it wasn't as tall as it seemed on hoof. I looked up, smiling as I trotted forwards.

"Hey Nimbus!"

My sight snapped down and looked to where the voice had come from. Drifting into view was my friend, Final. She was about a head shorter than me, which would be considered cute were she not capable of being intimidating. She was, as far as I could remember, the only one who had ever stared down an NCO. As usual, she wore her full uniform, not as neatly-pressed as mine, but not a shabby mess either. I smiled and looked down at her (I had to, but she was used to it). "Hey Final."

"Today's the big day, isn't it?" She smirked, nudging me with a foreleg.

"Yup," I replied, taking a step back. "How do I look?"

"Clean," she quickly commented, before licking her hoof and running it over my hair. And again. And again. I grabbed her hoof on her seventh attempt.

"Trust me, I've tried."

"I doubt anypony's going to notice," she said. After a second, a grin caught her face. "You could just cut it off, y'know."

"Got a pair of scissors?" I asked incredulously.

She started to say 'yes' until she realised the answer was 'no'. "Eh heh heh... sorry."

I grinned, patting her on the head in a jokingly condescending way. "It's ok, I'll just grab a pair from my locker."

"Alright, sir," she replied with a grin and a half-assed salute.

I chuckled, shaking my head as I walked inside. Even though this place was made out of cloud, it looked more like a white brick that had been hollowed out. Inside was no more different, with a statue of Feathertip's first and greatest Enclave leader, Thunderlane, in the centre. I smiled, looking at it; the statue depicted the famous well-built buck of Equestria's past, rearing up with a battlesaddle over his back with twin magic energy rifles on his sides, his wings outstretched. Thunderlane was highly respected in this building and town, being known as a great leader and a good friend to the ponies. I, like many other ponies, aspired to be like him. My father was the best living example I could see of it. And, to be honest, I'm sure if he was my own age, Thunderlane'd be one hell of a handsome stallion.

Shifting that thought aside for later, I trotted to the locker room. The designer of this place decided to forgo the concept of gender, making it one shared locker room. Of course, none of us were dumb enough to abuse it. As if by wrote, I found my locker and opened it up, reaching in with a hoof to find a pair of scissors or, failing that, a knife.

My ear perked as I caught my name being mentioned in an off-side conversation with some of my unit. I could only find a knife, so I grabbed it in its holster and slid it over my hips, turning to face the group of ponies. I slammed the locker door shut with a wing. "Excuse me; I heard my name being mentioned."

"It's nothing," Virga, the timidest mare of my unit, quietly said. A small part of her lavender mane covered her eyes.

"It isn't nothing!" Bulwark, our heavy weapons buck and by far the largest guy in our group, growled to her, prompting an 'eep' from the introverted purple mare. He turned to me. "You mean y' haven't heard?"

"Heard what?" I asked, tilting my head and lowering an eyebrow.

"Yer-" he continued, before Leaf, our sniper and probably the most attractive mare in the Enclave, covered his mouth with a hoof. I'd never seen Bul blush like that before.

"Well, I'm afraid it's bad news... I'd tell you, but I think the CO's want to tell you in person."

Even though her voice was akin to laying my ears on a soft, plush cloud, I kept my professional attitude up and just nodded. But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was up. And I wouldn't like it.

"I-it's your... um... you're going to be a corporal now, aren't you?" Virga meekly added. I smiled.

"Mhm."

"Wow, and only in a few months," Leaf purred, sounding impressed. "That's close to the record, isn't it?"

I nodded dumbly.

"Good job, ya weedy buck," Bulwark joked, nudging me rather painfully in the chest. "Didn't know you had it in ya."

"Thanks," I said as I rubbed my chest, thought I didn't really feel happy for it. There was still that nagging feeling in my gut that refused to go away. What were my friends hiding from me?

The ceremony for going up a rank was less... grand than I had imagined it would be. A hoofful of NCO's and the base's commander stood around in their fanciest uniforms, gave me a medal, told me 'good job kiddo' and left it at that. My father was supposed to be present too, being one of the highest-ranking NCO's here, but he hadn't shown up yet. And I had completely forgotten to cut that annoying lock of hair off. All in all, I had prepared for something that wasn't going to happen, but I was still prepared nonetheless.

I wasn't prepared for what came next.

"Corporal Nimbus." One of the officers pulled me aside after everypony else had left. I turned to him, that feeling of dread returning to the pit of my stomach.

"Sir?" I gulped.

"I have some... bad news. About your father."

Oh fuck.

"I'm afraid he's... gone missing. On the surface."

Oh fuck.

"And there is a suspicion in upper echelons that he abandoned us on purpose."

Oh fuck!

I gulped, my eyes widening. My dad... gone? Without so much as a note saying 'bye son, I'm gonna leave you be now, take care and have a good life p.s. dinner's in the fridge, just reheat it'? I felt my mouth open, and I closed it after a second. My body was trembling. "W-what...?"

"I'm afraid your father's been declared a Dashite, should he decide to return he will be dealt with as such. And please, don't try and pursue the matter any further." The officer, solemnly, doffed his hat. "I'm... sorry to be the bearer of bad news."

I finally managed to stop shaking enough to manage a pathetic "it's ok", before snapping him a salute. He returned the salute, congratulated me on my promotion (for what it was worth now) and left me where I was standing.

I looked down at my lapels, where the new stripe had been added. Was this even worth anything now? I was supposed to feel good about becoming a corporal. I'd always wanted my Dad to see me be the best I could be, whatever it was. Hell, I knew he did too. Now... he was gone forever, and now I was the son of a Dashite, an outcast of the Enclave. I wouldn't be considered much better than my father, and that would ruin any chance I had at becoming a Sergeant Major.

I fell to my haunches. What the fuck did I do to deserve this?

"Nimbus?"

"What?!” I shrieked at whoever made the noise. It took me a second to realise that it was a familiar short beige pony. "Fuck, I'm sorry Final..."

Final frowned, looking up at me with concern. "You ok, sir?"

"Please,” I pleaded weakly with her, "Don't call me 'sir'. We're still friends."

"Right then. Are you ok, Nimbus?" She leaned forward, looking into my eyes. I didn't return the gaze.

"I... I'm..." I couldn't say it. But I had to. But I didn't want to and- sighing, I gave up, and in a low, sombre voice: "My dad's a Dashite."

To her credit, Final's mouth dropped wide open. "No. Way. Seriously?" I nodded slowly. She frowned, looking off to the side, thinking for a long while. "No way. He... he just wouldn't do that... well... not without a good reason..."

I sighed again, head low. After a moment's thought, I raised it up a little. Final had a good point, as she always did. If I knew my father half as well as I did, he wouldn't just up and go quietly without any reason. I still had that dark cloud over my head and heart about him leaving, but I knew it wasn't just a 'fuck you, you Enclave bastards' from him. I wasn't even sure how, but I had to find out what happened and why he left. Raising my head up with steely determination, I galloped off towards the door. Final flew up beside me, matching my pace - she was a much better flier than me, but I had the advantage of long legs to help me gallop faster.

"Where are you going?" she asked, zipping up momentarily not to smack into one of the archive workers.

"Home."

I growled loudly, threw my hooves up in frustration and fell onto the couch flatly. Final drifted under the dining room table, her head panning around. "Nothing blew under here."

"For fuck's sake!" I screamed, and punched a hole in the couch, which reformed after I extracted my hoof. "Couldn't he have left something obvious for me to see?"

"Maybe he's got something in his room?"

I sat up, staring into her eyes, a look of horror mixed with disbelief. Dad had told me to never, ever enter his room. Ever. I always assumed it was something adult-related, but I realised now, as an adult, it was probably a matter of privacy. I told Final this.

"Your dad isn't here, doofus," she scoffed, balking when I leveled a (probably spine-chilling) glare at her. "Oops." She cleared her throat, before speaking again. "Ok, let me try that again. Your dad isn't here at the moment, and even if he was, he wouldn't be allowed here."

"Still, I'm not going to just trot his room just because I can."

Final gave me a nonplussed look, before standing up and trotting off. "Wait, where are you going?" I asked quickly.

"Into his room, duh."

My eyes popped wide. I jumped off the couch, my mouth blathering off as I stumbled stupidly to move in front of her. "No!"

"Nimbus, look, we're never going to find out why your Dad left if you keep doing this."

I balked, but eventually I sighed and conceded the point. "Ok then, I'll go. You stay out here."

She gave me a salute, still grinning. "Ok, sir."

"And quit it with the 'sir'."

Snickering, she trotted off to the kitchen, and I walked up to the door of my father's room, a sense of apprehension in my heart. I knocked on it. It was a stupid and pointless move, of course, but just on the off chance he was hiding in here... There was no reply. I eased the door open, stepping inside and taking a look around.

The first thing that stood out was how... small it was. It had to be at least a quarter of the size of my room, with a small one-pony bed in one corner. The realisation that Dad had given me the largest room in this house dawned on me, which admittedly didn't help me feel any better. The next thing I noticed was all the photographs and things up on the walls. Pictures of Dad when he was my age, pictures of me when I was a little foal, a few of Mum...

There wasn't anything explaining Dad's absence. Nothing obvious, anyway. Dad should have a diary somewhere in here. 'Should' being the key word. Nothing was just lying around, so I went looking through the drawers of his desk. I found some old, mostly empty books and a hoofful of magazines (including a copy of Wingboner magazine, which I quickly put back), a few pens, and some bits. No diary.

Sighing, I closed the drawer, my eyes settling on the glowing terminal on his desk. I had only used terminals for a few things before, and most of them were public. Shouldn't be too hard to do something. I sat down on the chair, and hit a key on the terminal.

Some letters flashed up:

Welcome, Cloudius Cloudhoof.

Mission reports

Diary

Shut down

I smiled. Tapping the arrows until I had 'Diary' selected, I hit the enter key.

Password:

_

Ok, credit where it's due, I'd password-protect my diary too. I growled, hit the 'back' key and selected mission reports. These ones were a number of years old and weren't much different from the ones I had practiced on the terminals. That wouldn't really help, though some of them were interesting reads. I returned to the Diary screen.

I needed to find a password. I sighed, putting a hoof to my chin. I couldn't hack it - I had no clue how. Now... if I were Dad, what password would I use?

I typed in 'cloudius' and hit Enter. Incorrect password. I tried 'nimbus'. Incorrect password. I tried 'cloudhoof', 'enclave', 'password'... nothing worked. I frowned at the stupid machine. Obviously this thing thought I was an idiot. I vowed to crack its secrets, even if I had to use a crowbar.

I sighed, defeated, and got up to leave, before my eyes caught sight of a framed photo beside the computer. It was a picture of my father, young and handsome, standing next to my mother. It was hard to tell, but I think her stomach was bulging out. It took me a second to realise that it wasn't fat - that was me in there. I grabbed the photo and looked at her smiling face. I never really got to know my mother. She died when I was about a year old. But from the photographs Dad had shown me, she had seemed like a beautiful, kind mare. I ran a hoof on the photo, before placing it down. It took me a mere second to remember that her name was Evening Gale.

I typed in 'evening'.

Correct password.

Thanks, Mum.

Another list scrolled down, with about nine times and dates on it. I looked through them all; only three really stood out; one from about 20 years ago, one from 10 years ago, and one from... yesterday.

Entry one

Today was my first descent down to the surface. I have to admit... I was shocked. The world below was in such ruin. The city of Vanhoover is less city and more rubble. I saw a bunch of savage ponies descend on a caravan, shooting and swinging swords at a small group of seemingly helpless ponies.

What was most surprising about that, for me, was that there were living ponies, and not only that, but most likely a functioning economy down there. Equestria has been reborn under our noses. I would have stayed longer to find out more, but I felt my skin crawling so I'll need to get some good anti-radiation chems. I've got a present for Evening, and I don't want to be actually glowing when I do.

Entry seven

Today's the tenth anniversary of when I asked Evening for my hoof in marriage. I'm managing... barely. I've had a few drinks, but not too much that I want to upset poor little Nimbus with an angry, drunk and depressed daddy. Even so, I really don't want him worrying about me. I dropped him off at his friend's house for a sleepover. I just don't want the poor kid around me for a little while. I'll buy him something nice when I pick him up; the little trooper deserves it.

I've been thinking about the mission I was on before I asked Evening to marry me, and my most recent mission down there. Vanhoover isn't dead; it's alive, even if it's barely. I can't believe we're sitting up here and not trading or even talking with them. We could supply them with fresh water; they could bring us food and part of any crops they grow, if they even grow crops. We won't ever have to worry about

I had another few drinks. I just had another wave of depression. I'm going to go to bed. I'll expect my pillow will be damp tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'll be better before I pick up my little pony.

Entry nine

That's it. I can't just sit here anymore, letting the ponies below starve and die because we won't help them. I'm not entirely happy about what I'm going to do, but I believe it's the right thing to do.

I'm going to go down there.

I really don't want to leave Nimbus or his friend Final behind. I want to see them grow up, and I want to be there for Nimbus when he becomes a corporal... but they're already suspecting me of wanting to leave, and I can't leave this be.

Nimbus. I know you're probably reading this. I'd be stupid of me not to assume you'd have figured out the password. You were always a smart kid like that. In any case, don't follow me. I know you might want to, but there's no point. If you are going to leave, don't do it because of me. Do it for yourself. Actually, just don't. This is something I need to do by myself. Take care of yourself, have a good life up here, and for Celestia's sake, clean up your room!!! Dinner's in the fridge, all you need to do is reheat it. I'm sure you can bring Final over to help cook something. Please, stay safe. And remember, I love you. I always will. Make your mother proud.

After a moment, I realised my eyes were watering. I blinked the tears away, rubbing the rest with my hoof. Dad didn't just leave because he wanted to.

He left because he needed to.

I shakily stood up, shutting the terminal off. It was only a sentimental thing, but didn't want to disturb Dad's room any further.

"So, what's the plan?" Final asked me after a while. She had found Dad's meal in the fridge and had reheated it. Were it not for my blocked nose, not to mention my mood, it would have tasted awesome. It just tasted like sadness now. It still tasted good, but sad.

I looked up at her. "What?"

Final leaned forward, having already eaten her fill. "Well, you know why your Dad left and you're just going to sit there and do nothing to help him?"

"I'm not going to go find him," I quietly said, placing my plate down. I wasn't hungry. Final greedily grabbed it and began finishing it off. "He said that I should stay here." And, considering this was an atomic wasteland we were talking about, I'm not sure we'd even survive down there. Was Dad even alive? That thought gripped my guts and played with them like a filly with a bit of rope.

"I'm not saying we're going after him,” Final clarified through a mouthful of lettuce. "I'm saying we'll go down to help him, and the ponies living down there."

"We?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course!" She grinned, slamming a hoof to her chest. "Where you go, I go. That's what friends and subordinates are for."

I groaned, but that soon turned into a chuckle. "Friends, please. None of this 'corporal and private' stuff, please."

She shrugged, her grin ever-present. "Ok, sir. So, are we going down or are we just gonna sit here?"

"No, we're..." I hesitated. I know I had reasons not to go, but did I have any reasons to stay? I wouldn't be really that well-liked around here, considering my name would be forever associated with a traitor. I remember hearing the story of some Dashite's daughter in Neighvarro who was bullied constantly. I didn't want something like that to be a persistent problem in my career, not to mention everywhere else. And I couldn't just see myself sitting here; with everything I could ever want, in a perfect but ignorant paradise, knowing that old Equestria was below the clouds, ponies struggling just to live another day. Not to mention that we were trained and (hopefully) armed soldiers - if ponies with less training could survive down there, Dad, Final and I could probably manage it quite well. And, well... Final seemed insistent on the idea; if I didn't go down she'd go down anyway, and I'd rather not lose my best friend because I wussed out.

I sighed. "Actually, no. We're going down there."

Final smirked. Where you go, I go.

Despite every plea, I had to leave Final behind when I decided to sneak into the Enclave base and grab some gear. Well, to be honest, it was less 'sneak in' and more 'walk in during the evening'. The sun had just set over the horizon, the sky slowly turning into its usual black and deep blues, the moon high up in the sky. With any luck, getting everything we needed from here would be a piece of cake.

Entering the building, and giving a 'good night' to a pair of privates who were leaving, I looked up at the rearing statue of Thunderlane. I was still impressed. I was almost upset I would never see this statue again, but I'm sure the great hero would understand my reasons... if he was still alive, of course.

I trotted through the locker rooms, walking up to my locker and grabbing some kit from it. I doubted I'd need deodorant, but soap would be good. My knife rested at my flanks in its scabbard. I had plenty of food and water at home, and I could always grab a cloud if worse came to worse. I walked on to the general supplier and requisitioned about seven... no, eight, better make that eight canteens (I didn't want to run out of water). I knew deep down I was stealing these, but it wasn't as bad as taking it from somepony directly - ponies lost gear all the time, and the worst punishment I had heard about was latrine duty. I also grabbed a number of dried food packets just in case, and some other things we might need. I even decided to slip the mare at the stall some bits for her trouble, which brought a smile to her face. Though that may have been by how ridiculous I looked with everything covering me, making me look like tortoise.

I was starting to regret not having a few extra hooves around.

Now came the harder bit - weapons. From what I could gather, there were still savages down there, and we needed to have some way of fending them off. Neither Final nor I were any good at close combat, so a couple of knives wouldn't exactly help. The problem with trying to get weapons was that there was almost always a custodian in there, making sure we grabbed the right bits and weren't just taking them for no good reason. We had a good reason, of course, but I doubted the Enclave would see it the same way. I continued on, walking up to the armoury, pushing on the solid cloud-iron door and sliding in, all while trying to keep quiet.

"Hey Nimbus." Leaf, who was busy cleaning a plasma rifle, turned to me and smiled.

I let out a little yelp of surprise. Truth be told, I wasn't expecting her to be here this late.

"Hey Leaf," I said, trotting along the racks of weapons, grabbing a couple of plasma rifles and plasma pistols. For some reason, I always preferred plasma weapons over laser. I guess it was just that lasers weren't as powerful. More accurate, sure, but not as good at doing damage. I scooped up some ammo, too; enough for seven reloads each. "Wasn't expecting you here."

"Alas, I was no more than five minutes late for a drill, so I was forced to remain back and keep all these weapons as spotless as I possibly can."

"Uh-huh," I murmured. "Is there any armour here?"

"They're in the back section," she reminded me. I nodded and trotted into the back room. There was a lot of armour here, all of different sizes. I could grab some of them, but then we'd be too obvious and not very stealthy. But there wasn't any other alternative, really. My eyes scanned the room, and soon found a couple of crates, marked with a spray-on Enclave icon. Curious, I walked up and undid the latches, letting it slide open. Inside were these strange black bodysuits, glossy black plates over certain points, and some light helmets which left the wearer's muzzle uncovered. I lifted one of the body suits up, and it felt fairly light. It looked armoured enough to stop plasma, but was still stealthy. The words 'Stealth Armour MkII' were written on the sides of them.

Well that explains that.

I slid them into the bag, too, and then trotted out of that small room and to the door.

"So, you're going on a dangerous mission, eh?" Leaf said silkily, not even looking away from the cleaned rifle. I halted and turned to face her.

"How did you know?"

"You wouldn't be grabbing that much ammunition if you weren't." She looked up at me, half-lidded. I grinned sheepishly, feeling my face getting a little warm.

"Yeah, Final and I are going on a pretty important mission. Not sure when I'll be back."

She stood up, laying the rifle down and enticingly trotting up to me, swinging her tail and looking deep into my eyes. I took a number of steps back, until I was pinned on the rack of magic laser rifles. She pressed her body against mine, wrapping her forelegs around my torso. Oh hell, I could smell her desire from here. I blinked in shock, trying to wriggle away.

"Well, if you're going to be out for a while, allow me to give you..." she chuckled sexily. "...a 'parting gift'."

Leaf had recently hit one of her 'cycles'. Considering she was alone in a room, bored as fuck, with nothing to relieve any tension, it shouldn't have been a surprise she had jumped on the first thing with a dick that entered the room. "L-Leaf?"

She leaned further forward, about to come in contact with my mouth, but I stopped her before she could go any further. She looked up at me, a mix of lust and confusion on her face.

"Leaf, what the hell...?"

She chuckled again. "Oh, just that every time you look at me, you always have this... gaze, as if you're imagining what dirty things you could do with me... and that turns me on..." She grinned, pushing me further on the rack. I tried to protest, reminding her she was effectively going to rape me, but she managed to finally plant a kiss on my lips, silencing me.

I find Leaf as attractive as everybody else does, but despite all my hormone-fueled fantasies, I didn't want this! I had more important things to do! And while she was a damn good kisser, I didn't have time for this sort of distraction. Keeping my body upright with my wings alone, I panicked and pushed on her stomach with my hindlegs, forcefully parting our lips and sending her staggering, eventually falling on her haunches, her face stuck in a look of shock. I panted, wiping my mouth with a hoof.

"No, Leaf."

Leaf looked up at me, her forest green mane falling over her face. "But-"

"I'm sure you know that forcing yourself onto someone is wrong, even if you are in that sort of mood."

Leaf blinked a few times, before blowing her mane out of her face and standing up, rubbing a foreleg and looking down. "I... I'm just... It's been so long since I've..." She looked away, blushing from embarrassment, before turning back to me. "I'm so sorry, sir."

"Please, just call me Nimbus." I decided to turn around, opening the door. Part of me didn't want to leave the poor mare like this, horny without a stallion or mare to help, but another part told me Final was waiting and I couldn't delay at all.

"N-Nimbus?"

I turned back to face her. "Yes?"

"Please return quickly and safely." She gave me a salute.

Nodding, I decided to leave it at that.

As soon as I closed the door, I turned and was greeted with a snarling crimson face. "Cloudhoof!"

I hastily threw a salute. "Sir!" It was one of the highest-ranking officers on base, Wing Commander Brush, glaring up at me. Didn't help he was shorter than Final. Or was I tall? Probably both

"What do you think you're doing, corporal?"

I remained facing forward. "Preparing for a mission, sir!"

"What mission?" He lifted himself off the ground to look into my eye. If he weren't the sort of pony who'd tear you apart for the smallest of offences, I'd probably have laughed. "I didn't hear about any mission."

"It's need-to-know, sir. Only the top brass, Private Step and I are allowed to know," I lied. I kept hoping he'd buy it.

After a few terrifying seconds, he nodded. "Very well. I'll double-check anyway. Good luck, soldier." And with that, he flew off.

As soon as he disappeared I sighed and quickly got the hell out of there.

Honestly, I was expecting more sneaking and less talking during that trip, I thought as I returned home in the darkness of the night. I opened the door, and saw that Final was deep asleep on the couch, curled into a little pony-sized ball. Looking at her quietly dozing, I remembered a moment from our childhood, where she had jumped next to me to wake me up. I distinctly remember hitting the roof rather painfully.

I smirked. Time for a little bit of payback.

I crouched low, snuck up, and checked the wall opposite her to make sure it was soft enough, before rearing up and slamming my hooves on one end of the couch, sending the other up into the air like a catapult. Final shrieked before her back slammed into the wall, her head facing the floor. By the way she was hanging, her wings had pinned her down.

"Nimbus!" She shouted, struggling to wriggle herself free. I just fell onto the ground, clutching my stomach and sides as I laughed like a madpony. She finally popped free, falling on her face, got up and trotted up to me. I looked up at her, giggling. The cloud beard she had acquired just made me laugh even harder.

"That was revenge for seven years ago, wasn't it?"

I nodded. She smirked and held out a hoof. I took it and stood up, albeit still giggling like mad.

"I'm not surprised you remembered that."

I finally stopped laughing after a few minutes, then patted away her beard. "Ok, so I've got some weapons we can use, and some canteens. Plenty of ammo, and some extra food in case we run out or something."

Final opened the bag, smirking as she rummaged around. Her face changed to one of confusion when she lifted out one of the stealth armour suits. "What're these things?"

"Stealth suits," I said matter-of-factly. "Well, stealth armour, but still kinda the same thing."

"Sweet."

Well, they weren't exactly fashionable, but they certainly were comfortable.

"Does my flank look big in this thing?" Final muttered jokingly, peering over her shoulder. I shrugged in response, then stretched my wings and forelegs. A few seconds later she shook her head, smirking.

"Alright, I think we're good to go," I said. Water? Check. Food? Check. Weapons? Check. Armour? Check.

Final smiled and trotted out of my house. As stupid as it was to do so, I turned off all the lights and locked the door behind me. (The lights were unicorn-enchanted balls of cloud. Because trying to get electrical circuits through clouds is hard and only reserved for certain buildings).

We quietly slinked out to the 'edge' of the city. While the expanse of clouds continued as far as I could see, most of it was soft beyond the cities. We finally stopped about a hundred metres from the buildings, and I took the opportunity to look back at Feathertip, probably for the last time.

"You know... I'm going to miss this place," I muttered as a wave of... something... washed over me. Apprehension? Nostalgia? Love?

"Same here,” Final said. "But we'll be doing better."

I spotted some moving lights in the distance. I strained to get a better view, but quickly I realised that they were...

Oh come on!

I tapped my friend on the shoulder, then pointed at the unit of soldiers. "Final, we've got company."

Damn! Commander Brush must have found out, or Leaf let word slip about it. Either way, we had a bunch of ponies after us.

She looked back, and although we had no proper view of our eyes, I could just make out her pupils becoming pinpricks as she spotted them.

"Shit!" She began pressing against the ground. I, too, joined her in her efforts. The clouds were too damn solid, and even when I started scraping some of it away, it just fixed itself quickly.

I heard shouts, all the lights pointed towards us. I cursed loudly, and started pounding the ground. "Stupid...! Just...! Part...! Dammit!"

Final stopped pushing, then reached into one of her saddlebags, pulling out a black metal apple with a green band around it. I looked up, halted what I was doing, and blinked, making sure I wasn't imagining this.

"A grenade?!" I shrieked.

"Yeah!"

"What the... how... where'd you even get that?!"

"Stole some seven months ago!" she cackled, pulling the stem out, dropping the grenade, stomping on it, grabbing her helmet, and jumping off to the side. Without time to muse about why she stole some grenades, I did the same, and in a second I heard the kaboom of the explosion-enchanted emerald crystal inside going off. After a moment I looked back up, and saw a hole wide enough for two ponies in its place. Final, still grinning insanely, gave me a salute and jumped down fearlessly.

I snapped my head to the incoming Enclave soldiers. They were shouting at me, but I didn't hear what they were saying. The hole below me was slowly closing up, and looking down into it, I saw a black, limitless pit, with water droplets cascading off the edges into the abyss. I stepped to the edges, and fear gripped me. It was deep, dark, wet and most likely somewhat irradiated, and my body fought my mind for control. However, in a few seconds, the hole would close up, and the soldiers would be right next to me to cart me away to be detained, maybe worse...

Ok, now or never.

I lifted both my forelegs up, splayed my wings, and let gravity do the rest. Just as the soldiers arrived, shouting at me to stop, I gracefully and calmly lifted off the cloud and began the descent to the surface world, the hole closing up right behind me, locking me from everything I knew and in a strange new world.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Mare Killer -- +10% damage to the opposite sex and unique dialogue options with certain ponies.

Author's Note

After editing this several times, then running it through the pre/proof-readers, it's finally done! Oh, sweet fufillment!

I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to the next one :twilightsmile:

~StormbadgerXIII