//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Fallout: Equestria - Stargazer // by MrShinyObject //------------------------------// Based on the fanfiction Fallout: Equestria by KKat co-written by Mr. ShinyObject and Doctor Felix Whooves edited by Twilight Sparkle Stargazer- Prologue “War. War never changes. It doesn’t matter which side you’re on” The ground is dry and barren. Nonetheless, a striped foal idly digs at the ground. Her mother told her that this was a way Zebras used to find water a long time ago. The foal wasn’t that thirsty, but she was nervous, and this was something to do while she waited for her mother to get beck. “Zala!” came a shout from behind the filly. She jumped up and spun around to see her mother trotting towards her at a frantic pace. She was dressed in a simple black cloak with a single saddlebag to the right, filled to the brim with bottles of potions. “Zala, come with your mother, we have to leave the city right now,” she instructed the filly, “Come now, quickly!” The filly answered with a frown, but followed her mother regardless, struggling to keep up to her pace. She turned her head back to the capital. It was so majestic, and so big. Zala had seen little more than huts most of her life, but the city was filled with mansions and castles. Even the shops were made of stone and metal! But most impressive of all was the Imperial Castle. To the young foal it seemed to stretch up for miles, with its pointed towers poking through the clouds and blocking out the sun itself. She wished it was more colorful, though. The outside had black and white stripes flowing down each of the towers, and the rest of the castle was just slid white or black. She’s never seen it, but she knows that the inside is the most colorful spot in the entire empire, adorned with more gems than she would see in her entire lifetime. The only time she had even seen a gem was the one her father took with him when he went to fight the war. Zala noticed something just behind the castle. A little glimmer in the daylight that greatly frightened the filly. “Mom, Mom! There’s a star behind the castle! But it’s day, why is there a star there?” she asked her mother. She was not the only foal in the capital who feared this daytime star, and her mother was not the only zebra in the capital to fear the incoming megaspell. The foals’ fear is deeply seated in eons of zebra lore, but the adults’ fears are new to them and not so easily dissipated. Zala’s mother stopped motionless in her tracks. Tears fell from each eye, passing through lines of black and white until they hit the ground. She finally turned to answer the filly, “Zala, that is not a star, it is something much worse. It will get brighter and brighter and then it will burn this city in fire.” This was a time for honesty. She would not trick her own daughter. She unlatched her saddlebag and slid her whole cloak off so the bottles all rolled out onto the ground. More than a few of them had blood on them, but the filly simply assumed it was some red potion that spilled. “These are yours now, Zala. They were not easy to get, but I know you need them more than anyone. Even me. Now drink!” The filly complied, and drank as fast as she could while tears began to form. She had never seen her mother like this. Sad, angry, worried, guilty, loving, all at once. She tried to focus on the potions. None quite tasted right, and they all made her feel funny. Her eyes wandered and saw that mother was right: The star was getting brighter and brighter, bigger and bigger, closer and closer. As she licked her lips from the last bottle, she tried to say something but just started bawling instead. “It’s okay Zala. I did what I could for you, I only hope that it serves its purpose.” her mother told her as she embraced her child. “If I could protect you with love alone, I would, and nothing could ever break it.” The two sat there on the outskirts of town, holding onto each other and waiting. The star got brighter and brighter and eventually hit the Imperial Castle at its highest tower, and the castle was no more. The entire city was encompassed with light, then with flames. The filly saw her mother turn to ash before her in an instant. The flames curved and licked around the filly leaving her unharmed, but her tears boiled away as soon as they came out. A shock wave rushed through the town, toppling entire structures. A newly emptied chariot was flown back and hit the filly with the force of a stampede, crushing her to death instantly. This was the last day of the Zebra Empire.