Fallout: Equestria: Shifting Tides

“He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.”

Smoke.

Smoke is never good.

I peered out from behind the rock I was using for cover and stared at the nearby ruins. Smoke and the smell of burning flesh filled the air. Piles of ash, still-smoldering embers glowing in the night, and scorched wooden debris were all that remained of the small village. The town was probably too small to be on any map (if anypony out here even had a map) but not too small to attract the local raiders.

Movement in what was left of one of the razed buildings caught my attention. I knew that there was a fifty percent chance that it was a raider, but that there were the same odds that it was a survivor. Steeling my nerves, I tied a rag around my face to keep the smoke out of my lungs and levitated the hunting rifle to my side. Stepping out from my cover, my eyes swept the ruins, searching for any signs of the ponies who did this. When I was satisfied that there were no immediate threats, I dropped the power armor behind the rock and slowly trotted over to the charred remnants of the house.

Hiding behind a partially collapsed wall, I examined the building where the movement came from. This house seemed to have been demolished with explosives rather than burnt. Instead of piles of ash, the floor and ground around the house was buried underneath piles of rubble.

Hoping to find out what had moved, I kicked some of the debris out of the way. A flash of red under some charred timber caught my eye. Kicking away some more of the rubble, I levitated my rifle over to the red patch.

I gave the red bit a light poke, and my eyes widened as a small whimper rose from the rubble. Somepony survived! Scanning the ruins for hostiles once more, I dropped the rifle to the ground and magically tore into the debris. Flinging burnt chairs and charred tables behind me revealed more and more red fur, until a red earth pony with a bright orange mane laid in front of me.

It looks like they tried to get home when the raiders hit, and had their house dropped on them... That's probably the only reason they're still alive. I can't tell if they're lucky or unlucky... I thought to myself, looking down at the mysterious pony.

I laid the injured pony on the ground in front of me and pulled out my bandages and the flask of the strange purple liquid. The pony had some nasty cuts and one or two deep gashes, but most of their injuries seemed to be internal. Crap, I thought to myself. Bandages can't heal internal bleeding. I looked at the vial of purple fluid one more time. They're already dying. It can't hurt to try it.

Uncorking the bottle, I raised it to the colt's lips and tipped it upwards. After a few seconds, his eyes fluttered open and he drank the rest of the potion, looking better every second. With a cough, he drained the last of the contents of the bottle and dropped it onto the ground. Shaking his head, he looked up at me with a mixture of confusion and fear.

"Um, t-thanks, b-but why are you helping me?" He stammered, backing a small distance away. I frowned at his behavior before replying.

"I helped you because, well..." I thought for a moment, trying to find the right words. "Well, I guess I helped you because you needed help. I couldn't just let you lay there and die." He blinked and I went on. "I guess my conscience made me help you."

He looked at me, his fear turning into confusion. "A raider with a conscience?" He muttered. "That's a first." At my shocked expression, he quickly stammered out another sentence. "N-not that I'm insulting you, o-or anything."

After a few moments of unbearable silence, I burst out laughing. So that's what this guy's problem is. At the look of shock and confusion on the colt's face, I began explaining. "I'm not a raider! I'm just... Well, I don't know what I am, but I'm pretty sure I'm not a raider." At this revelation, he relaxed slightly and moved a bit closer to me. "Anyway, I don't think a raider with a conscience is even considered a raider anymore!" This remark elicited a slight chuckle from the red buck.

"Sorry for the assumption." The colt looked up sheepishly. "The only ponies that pass through here nowadays are either raiders trying to kill us or slavers trying to sell us. Anyway, the name's Flare. My special talent’s, well, burning things." He said with a smile, motioning to the ball of flame on his flank.

Alright. At least I know something about him, I thought to myself. Unless he's lying to me.

"Alright!" I said, enthusiastically. "Well, I've got to go find out who I am, so I'll let you get on with..." I searched for the right word. "Rebuilding?" This comment brought a shocked expression to his face.

"Rebuild? Hell no! I'm leaving this Celestia-forsaken town to rot!" He exclaimed. "If we rebuild, this'll just happen all over again. Nah, I'm gonna leave and see where the road takes me. Thanks again for your help, but I really should get going if I want to make it to a town by tomorrow." He nodded in my direction and began trotting away from the town.

"Actually..." He stopped to look back at me after a few steps. "I'm not about to go trotting around in raider territory at night with no weapons. Can you help me somehow?" He turned and looked at me, waiting for an answer.

I looked at him for a few moments and sighed. "You could come with me. There's strength in numbers, and we'd both be less likely to die with somepony else watching our back."

He thought it over for a few minutes before replying. "Well... Why not? Not dying sounds nice," he said. "Anyway, where are you headed?"

"Well..." This question completely stumped me. "I actually have no idea." I looked down at my hooves sheepishly. "I have a bit of amnesia, so I'm just trying to remember anything I can about my past."

He looked surprised at this. "Well, I guess anyplace is better than here. C'mon, let's see if we can scavenge anything from this place."

"Alright," I replied, levitating my pistol and the four clips over to him. "But take this with you. I don't know if the raiders are still here." With a nod, Flare and I began to scavenge the ruins of his town.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

After about an hour of searching the various ruins and rubble for anything of use, Flare and I met back at the house I found him under. He had managed to find a box of 10mm rounds (which neither of us could use), a locked medical box (which neither of us could open), and a combat knife that one of the raiders had dropped. I had just as little luck, collecting a length of pipe, a spark battery I thought I could use on my power armor, and a box of something called Sugar Apple Bombs.

We stood over the medical box. Flare nudged it with a hoof and looked towards me. "Do you have a bobby pin and a screwdriver? I could probably open it if we did." I rummaged through my saddlebags for a second and produced a few bobby pins and a screwdriver. Levitating them over to him, I flung the spark battery away and peered over his shoulder.

Flare placed the bobby pin in the lock and turned it for a few degrees. Eventually he slid the screwdriver into the lock and turned it slowly. A click sounded from inside the lock and the box popped open. Flare swung the lid over and we peered into the box.

Laying inside the box were a few more bandages, a pack of... Blood? And two more of the purple potions I saw before. "Hey, Flare." Flare turned to me as I spoke. "What are those purple drinks? I gave you one before but I didn't know what it was." At this remark, he stared at me silently.

"So... You had no idea whether something was poisonous or not," he started, staring at me with a blank expression. "And not knowing what it was, you gave it to somepony you were trying to save." He blinked and continued. "What part of that seemed smart to you?"

"Hey!" I said in my defense. "You were bleeding internally. I thought it couldn't hurt you anymore than you already were."

Flare sighed. "Well, you were right about that. Those are healing potions. They do what the name implies. But they can't heal major wounds and they won't remove bullets, so don't think you can run into machine gun fire and just walk away with a few less potions." He turned to look toward the horizon. "Anyway, we should get going. Who knows if those raiders will come back?"

I nodded in agreement and spoke up. "Wait just a moment. I'll go get the rest of my supplies." I left Flare with the loot and trotted over to my power armor. Levitating it onto my back, I returned to Flare, who was now eyeing the armor wearily.

"Where did you get that?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. I shifted and let the power armor slide to the ground. Thinking quickly, I replied with a lie that I hoped he would believe.

"I found it on a corpse in a building back down the road. I took it because I thought it would at least be useful if we sold it for scrap." I hoped he wouldn't ask anything else, or my lies would collapse. After a few tense moments, he nodded and started packing up everything we had scavenged. After packing up all the supplies we had managed to collect, we started down the road away from the ruins of the town.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

"I think we're lost."

"We aren't lost! I just have no idea where we are. Or where we're going. Or how to get there. But I know that we're going... North-ish. I think..." As the words left my mouth, I started to realize that things were getting hopeless. We had been walking for at least an hour, and we hadn't seen a single settlement on the way. I mentally kicked myself for passing out in the middle of nowhere.

“I’m pretty sure that’s the definition of lost,” Flare said, looking over at me. “This is getting us nowhere. All we’re doing is exhausting ourselves by walking in circles!” After a few more miles of nothing, he trotted over to the skeletal remains of what was once a tree and laid down in the little bit of shade it provided.

I moved over to his side and dropped the power armor with a loud *thump*. Breathing heavily, I turned to glare at him. “I’ve... been carrying... this armor... for the past 3 miles. You... don’t get to complain!”

He snickered and waited for me to catch my breath before replying. “Well, why not just drop the armor? I doubt that you could really sell it for anything in this condition, and even if you got it repaired you wouldn’t be able to use it.”

This last remark surprised me. “Why can’t I use it? I’m pretty sure it would fit me.”

Flare looked over and sighed. “Sorry, I keep forgetting about the amnesia. That’s power armor, and you’d need power armor training if you even want to wear it. Do you even know where that armor is from?"

“Um... No?” I replied, looking sheepish. “I just found it, remember? All I know is that it looks cool.” Alright, so that wasn’t a complete lie. I knew how to use it and I knew it was mine, but I really didn't know anything past that.

"That's Steel Ranger power armor," Flare stated. "They're these crazy ponies who think that any piece of technology from before the war should be hoarded and locked up. Sometimes they'll even attack innocent ponies for any pre-war tech on them. PipBucks, beam weapons, anything they see as valuable or dangerous."

This last revelation shocked me. Could I really have been like that? Noticing Flare's look of confusion I spoke up. "Oh, I just can't believe anypony would be that cruel!" I lied. "Attacking innocent ponies just for a piece of tech? That's horrible!"

Flare looked at me suspiciously once more. "Alright..." He said slowly before getting back onto his hooves. I followed suit and levitated the armor over to Flare.

"You get to carry the armor this time." He scowled at me and shifted the armor onto his back.

"Why? It's your armor! You carry it!" Flare glared over at me.

"Why? Because you're a gentlecolt. You should start acting like one." I smirked and looked over at him. He glared and starting trotting away from me, muttering under his breath.

"*Sigh* Fillies..."

Footnote: Level up!

Perks Gained: Life Giver - +30 HP

[A/N: Sorry for such a long wait. I had some stuff to do for school and other stuff in my life (sick relatives, weddings, etc.). Alright, so! Main character. I'm being vague about them on purpose. So far we've got race, coat color, and gender. There'll be more next chapter.]