Fallout: Equestria - Purity

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

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