Fallout Equestria: Total Eclipse

Prologue

I could start my memoirs with the usual cliché of "war never changes" but I'm not completely convinced that it doesn't change. To me, it changes constantly, just like the yearly seasons and the daily weather forecast. Who you fight changes, why you fight them, and how you fight them. Sure war is a constant. Ponies are never happy with what they have. Other species can also rival and compete for pony territory, which is what started the original war. Now, the war was pony kind against pony kind. The war of survival.

There is always two sides to a war, and every side somehow believes they are right and justified in what they are doing and why they are fighting. To me, we were always the 'good guys' but to ponies on the ground, we were the ultimate end boss enemy. We are the pegasi.

About 200 years ago, the skies closed. A massive cloud cover divided the earth, from the heavens. Powered by tall towers, the thick clouds prevented radiation from rising up and poisoning the ponies who lived above, while the ponies who lived below, scampered into underground shelters they called stables. The ones who didn't fit into the stables, died, or became radiated ghouls or mutated monsters.

Above the clouds, civilization continued as it always had, governed by a council of elders and held together by a military division that became known as the Grand Pegasus Enclave. They made sure the skies stayed closed, and that the citizens above were protected from the wasteland below.

Many on the surface saw the actions of the pegasi as traitorous. They felt that the flyers had abandoned the war and left the ground ponies to fight alone and die. The pegasi, however, had a different view point.

The first city to fall to the massive megaspells had been a sky city, Cloudesdale. It had been considered the mighty capital of the heavens. History books said that after that, pegasi leaders begged the ground ponies to stop the war and find some way to make peace with the zebra who were attacking our lands. That peace was not seen as a viable option, and the pegasi, in their far reaching wisdom, foresaw the great fall of all of all of Equestria. Couldn't anypony else see it coming? Didn't they know that the fate of Cloudesdale would soon be the fate of every city they knew?

For whatever reason, when the pegasi's plea's remained unheard, they found a way to close the clouds. In essence, it was to protect the cities above, from the horrors below. No amount of underground stables were going to hold all the innocent ponies who were about to die in the inevitable holocaust. Not to mention, underground stables were no place for ponies who could fly. Too claustrophobic, too stuffy, far too cramped and shallow a grave for pegasi.

Our kind had no other choice.

I grew up knowing no other lifestyle than the one my forefathers had lived and many generations before me had. We were taught a history that included a necessity for continued survival of our species. Some would argue that perhaps with the pegasi's continued help, we could have beaten the zebra and won the war. I don't agree. Even with all our technology and equipment, massive airships, laser powered rifles, organized Wonderbolts with strategic military attack plans, we were still no match for unicorn created mega spells that could annihilate an entire city in a single flash. Pony kind would still have lost. The lands above and below, would both be wasted. At least this way, we'd preserved some of Equestria's former glory.

I'd joined the Grand Pegasus Enclave for various reasons.

1. To get away from my father! A high ranking military officer and not much of a dad,
2. Well… everyone in the Eclipse family joined the enclave. It was a given!
3. Pressure from family to fulfill number two, I had very little say in the matter,
4. To serve the skies and keep the citizens safe from the horrors below on the surface.

I had tried to focus on the last reason the most. We definitely had something worth protecting. Our cities were… awe inspiring. Beautiful. Amazing! True, I'd never spent much time on the surface to compare. Other than brief ground missions during training, it simply was not allowed with out orders from higher up. I loved the skies, the clouds, the sun, all our malls and theaters, farms, nice colorful homes, foals and yearlings running and playing in the cloudy streets. I'd grown up playing in the parks and playgrounds. True, I wasn't a popular filly, but other than a few flight school squabbles among peers, it had been peaceful. That was a peace worth fighting for!

I'd heard rumors of life on the surface, everything from citizens saying "Nothing is alive down there" to Enclave members saying "it's filled with crazed radiated ponies, monsters, mutants, flesh eating lunatics and nothing good is alive down there" I tended to believe the latter to be true, confirmed by all the stories my father told me about missions to the surface. How he'd risked life and limb for his team and had to fight off all the 'bad ponies' below who hated the pegasi.

I had it drummed into me that nothing good lived below, that it was a place of resources and not worth savaging beyond that. The ponies below created their own hell, did nothing to fix things and enslaved, stole from, killed and even ate each other. Oh sure you can judge me for believing only that to be true and then signing up for the Enclave, but you don't know my story. For better or worse, I'm here to tell it. So before you close the book on me… Take a moment to hear my side?

Ebony Eclipse, Former Lieutenant of the Grand Pegasus Enclave.