Fallout: Equestria - Darkness Consuming by Adventuring Cactus, based on Kkat's legendary "Fallout: Equestria"
Chapter 1: What The Wastes Dragged In
(A/N) Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to My Little Pony or the Fallout series, and nor do I own Fallout: Equestria.
Hello. My name is Starslash Skies. I'm a unicorn stallion. I have a black coat and a mane and tail that are the bright green of radiation. My cutie mark is an ammo box with a scavenger hat hanging on the corner of the lid. When I received it, I learned that I was an excellent scavenger and explorer, the best in my town. It would almost be amusing, if it wasn't for the hell that awaited me every time I was sent out.
The Equestrian Wasteland. This is what's left of Equestria after the war over 250 years ago. My small village, what was once the town of Maresquite, far in the west Marejave deserts of Equestria, was destroyed in the war. Only a small portion remained liveable when civilization emerged from the Stables, and my family has lived in this town for generations since.
Being the town's scavenger, I have the most dangerous job, but also the most exciting. Upon receiving my Cutie Mark, I was given large, metal plated armor and a battle saddle with a Hunting Rifle on one side and a Varmint Rifle on the other. Also, due to my unicorn abilities, I had a unique gift to be able to hold and fire any kind of weapon with magic, as well as pick locks, and levitate danger or cover.
Because I leave the town so often, I've run into Raiders and such multiple times, so I've done my fair share of killing. I also developed a habit of looting bodies for treasures or useful armor and weapons for either repairs or to replace my own.
Today was another scavenging day. I've learned to deal with, and sometimes enjoy, these days, though the loot and food I could find was beginning to become scarce. I said my temporary farewells to my family: Daylight, my sister, Midnight, my mother, and Stormy, my father. They've gotten used to watching me leave every two weeks or so for this kind of thing. Today was no different. They knew I'd be coming back.
Not 15 minutes from the town, I was immediately being shot at. They were either Slavers or Raiders, and deserved something far worse than death - but death would have to do. I whipped out my sniper rifle from my saddlebag, which I enchanted with a spell that made it hold as much as I wanted it to. I levitated the sniper rifle's scope to align with my right eye, focused on my target, and fired. In less than a second, my first assailant's head exploded into a gory mess all over his partner, who squealed in terror. She had probably just been recruited, and hadn't witnessed death before.
I put away my sniper and readied my 5.56mm gun, slowly approaching the second opponent. She seemed distraught and frightened, and was begging for me not to shoot her. That was, until I got within two yards away. She drew a six-shot revolver and aimed. I had only seconds to yell "Shit!" and roll behind cover before half of those shots sailed over me with an audible whine. After another three unsuccessful shots from her revolver, she started to reload. As she was doing so, I jumped out and aimed my Hunting Rifle directly at her snout and fired.
I shielded my face from the blood and gore that erupted from her annihilated skull. I looted the pistol and about 30 caps from her body, as well as a bit of ammo. I got parts for my sniper, ammo, and 15 caps from the second guy. But as I was turning around to walk towards their camp, I noticed there was a third body, one I certainly didn't kill. This one had shackles around his hooves and was wearing a blue and yellow jumpsuit with the number 357 on it. I noticed he had a saddlebag, so I checked it. There were a few tools, which I had plenty of, but what really intrigued me was what lied beneath.
As I removed the rest of the tools from the bag, I noticed a strange contraption that I had never seen before. It was a cylindrical object, with a large, gaping hole in it. I looked at what appeared to be a screen on the side. To the left of the screen, there were words embedded. They read "Stable-Tec Pip-Buck 3000 A Model". There appeared to be a manual for this exact thing in the bag, so I took that too. I put what I had found in my saddlebag and looted the Raider's camp. They seemed to have a large supply of food, enough to feed the village with a little left over. Score!
As soon as I got back to Manehattan, I gave the food to the Sheriff, who immediately began to distribute it among the houses. I arrived at my house, much to the joy of my family who greeted me with warm hugs and smiles. Afterwards, I went into my room, as per the usual, and sat at my desk. I took out the "Pip-Buck" and its manual from my saddlebag and placed them on my desk. I used my magic to flip open the manual. On the first page, it stated:
Getting To Know Your Pip-Buck 3000
I spent the entire night reading over the manual, taking a break to eat when the food I scavenged was prepared. By the time I had finished reading the manual, I had the PipBuck latched onto my arm, powered on. I had checked out the damage on it, which wasn't that severe. The stallion this was attached to seemed to take excellent care of it. What was damaged, on the other hand, was extremely easy to fix. Just a little wire adjustment, was all. As soon as I fixed it up, I switched on what the manual called E.F.S, or "Eyes-Front Sparkle". As I looked around, I saw what I assumed was my family appear as little green blips on the Pip-Buck's built in compass. Okay, good to know that works. After I switched the E.F.S off, my attention turned to the S.A.T.S, or "Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell". I guessed that was for assisted targeting, which could be really helpful in my scavenging missions.
I switched to the "Stats" tab by pressing the red button on the bottom left of the device. The first thing I saw was a diagram of a jolly looking pony with hair that appeared to be slicked. He seemed to be in a lowered stance and little bars were hovering next to his limbs. There was also one on his body and over his head. I was unsure of what this was, so I clicked down to the next page. This was headed by three letters, "RAD", which I figured stood for radiation. My suspicions were confirmed when I recognized a Geiger-Counter that had the words "Radiation Level" encrypted above it. The final page was headed with "EFF". I figured out this was "Effects" when I looked at the page and saw "No Current Effects" lining the center of the screen.
The "Data" tab was accessed using the red button on the bottom right. I clicked on it and noticed the pages were all along the bottom of the screen. Respectively, they read: "Local Map, World Map, Quests, Notes, Radio". The local map showed the area of the building I was currently in, the world map showed the entire Equestrian Wasteland, the Quests page was basically a to-do list, the notes page was just that, and the Radio page is also pretty self-explanatory.
Back on the "Stats" tab, I noticed other selections along the bottom: "S.P.E.C.I.A.L, Skills, General." I checked out the "S.P.E.C.I.A.L" page. Once I reached that page, I noticed those very letters lined up vertically. While nothing was highlighted, the letters spelled out "Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, Luck". I read it was some kind of ability monitor. Strength goes over your muscle mass, Perception reads your brain and monitors how well you perceive, Endurance measures how much more damage your body can handle, Charisma was another brainwave-reader that told you your rhetoric skills, Intelligence measured your IQ, Agility measures your body's mobility, and Luck was just that.
Enough about the Pip-Buck - I'm sure it got dull after a while. What should REALLY get you intrigued is a fight, which is exactly what occurred the next day. On the village.
I was abruptly awakened by my Midnight, screaming.
"Star! Star! Starslash Skies, wake your ass up right now, we have to get out of here!" Her panicking voice shot me awake. I rushed out of my bed, sudden adrenaline rushing through my veins.
"Midnight, what the hell is going on," I yelled, my voice matching the tone of my sister's. She trotted in place, obviously freaking out over something. I just wished she would tell me. "Midnight, tell me now, or I swear to Celestia-" She cut me off abruptly.
"Raiders! Raiders invaded the village and they...they took Mom and Dad! They're planning on burning the whole village!" She looked at me, her face being home to a distressed expression. I was about to question why I hadn't been woken up, or why they didn't take either of us as well, but I remembered our parents supposed to be out of the house for the day. I figured Midnight had seen the ordeal and ran back to the house as fast as she could, and here she was.
"Shit! Shit, shit, shit!" It was my turn to trot in place, somewhat anxiously. My parents were just kidnapped, potentially murdered, and the village was about to be set ablaze. Fuck...If I was gonna even attempt to save this town, not to mention my parents, I'd need to do it fast. And with a shitload of guns.
I grabbed my battle saddle and my enchanted saddlebag and threw them over my back on top of my armor. As I was leaving my room, I picked up my cowstallion hat and tipped it to my sister. "I'll be back, I promise," I told her. "In the meantime, find a safe place to hide from the raiders. And for the love of Celestia and Luna, Stay. Safe."
I trotted out the door, having fire opened on me almost instantly. Of course, I retaliated. I aimed straight at my assailant's face with my Varmint Rifle. In less than a second, his blood and brain covered the wall behind him. I broke into a gallop down the main road, taking cover whenever I could. The rest of the raiders were either meeting up in one spot or hiding, waiting for a pony to ambush. Hopefully it was the former. I could see smoke from the fires of their camp that they set up a couple miles from the village. I figured that's where they took Mom and Dad, so that's where I was first headed. I hoped Midnight had found somewhere safe to hide.
I had arrived at the camp with no hail of gunfire on me, fortunately. But what I didn't expect to find was something that was more horrific than anything I could ever imagine.
My parents' lifeless bodies.
I stared in terror at my mother and father, strapped to torturing tables, parts of them ripped off and placed on a nearby table. Their cutie marks were cut off and pinned to a board, along with the cutie marks of several other ponies who shared the same fate. As I stared, my jaw fell and tears silently streamed down my face. I dropped on my rump and hung my head. I sat there for a while, mulling over what I had just experienced. I exited the tent my parents were in and looked into the others to realize that they weren't the only ones from the village to end up as decorations. I felt vilified towards this specific group of raiders more than any evil thing I had come across.
I turned and started walking back towards the village to see the clan of raiders running from it. I stared, confused. My confusion was soon erased when a loud sound erupted from the town, bright lights flared my vision, and heat consumed the whole of Maresquite. Even more shocked than I was before, I simply sat and watched, eyes wide. I thought of all the people who were in the town at the time. Pretty much everyone except that family that was on vacation. Which meant….
"Shit! Midnight!" I ran as fast as I could back to the village, calling her name I searched through the wreckage, in every nook and cranny, until finally her scorched body was revealed to me under a large sheet of half-melted metal. She was hardly recognizable, but her deep purple coat was unmistakable. Those raiders were dead. Fucking. Meat.
BANG!
That's 24 raiders down, 3 to go. Largest clan I've seen in a while. I switched on my E.F.S and found two of them. I snuck around where they were taking cover and levitated the combat shotgun I looted from one of them. Holding it directly at the back of one's head, I engaged S.A.T.S. In about 3 seconds, both the raiders' heads were nothing but goo spilling from their lifeless E.F.S detected the last raider behind boxes of explosives. I backed up a bit, chucked a grenade towards them, and watched the fireworks. These sons of bitches won't be terrorizing anyone anymore.
I awoke from the nightmare with a start, shooting up in my makeshift bedding. I kept having that same nightmare, all about that specific day. It was 4 years ago, but the events were still fresh in my mind. Ever since then, I've vowed to be a lone ranger, so as not to be able to lose anyone close to me. It had been going strong, but what's about to take place changed that. This story will NOT be for the faint of heart.