Fallout: Equestria: Close Call

by ZIAT

2: In Which a Rescue is Unwelcome, and an Innocence Lost

Chapter 2: In Which a Rescue is Unwelcome, And an Innocence Lost

“Confragosa in fastigium dignitatis via est.”
"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness."
-Seneca the Younger, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium

What’s in a name? Pain, apparently. I, Close Call, presumably for no other reason than my name, have been selected to be the first pony in over two centuries to step outside the walls of Stable 81, in order to see what has become of the outside world and gain what experience I could from it. Not ten minutes after making that first historic step, I already had my first, solid lesson: there was nothing left. Somehow, for reasons I had yet to understand, the rich and fertile land of Equestria-possibly the rest of the world as well-has been transformed into nothing more than wasteland. My second lesson? Two-by-fours hurt. They hurt a lot.

* * *

I awoke an unknown time after my second lesson, head pounding. It was still…daylight, outside, if you could call it daylight. I kept my eyes firmly on the horizon, but could still see that the sky was overcast and gloomy. In my more immediate presence, I saw three ponies: my captor, and two others. Twins, oddly enough, dressed in matching business suits, which were ratted and torn by age, along with fedoras and round sunglasses. All three were speaking to one another in hushed tones, clearly arguing about something. “Five thousand or no deal.” My captor hissed through closed teeth. The twins merely smiled in unison, unblinking. “What will you do-“ Began one, his voice oily, quiet yet firm. “-If we don’t take him?” The other finished for him, his own voice a carbon copy. If I hadn’t seen their mouths move, I would have guessed it was the same pony speaking. Wait, take me? Take me where? No, I didn’t care if they ever came to an agreement; no one was going to take me anywhere! That is, anywhere further then I had already been taken! I pushed myself to my hooves, and-no, no I didn’t. I tried, then fell flat on my face as I realized too late that my captor had bound my hooves with rope-probably to prevent escape.

“Ah, look who’s-“ One of the twins began, smiling. “-Awake.” I looked dumbly up at the both of them, looking from them to my captor. She herself didn’t seem to share their amusement, instead opting for an expression of exasperation. Ignoring her, the suited twins stepped forward towards me, peering at me over the rims of their sunglasses. Those smiles seemed frozen on their faces as they began again in their broken speech:

“We’ve been waiting-“

“-A long time for you-“

“-Close Call. We are thrilled-“

“-To finally meet you. We-“

“Hey!” The brown unicorn mare interrupted angrily, “You two can molest him later! Right now, I want the five thousand caps I was promised! Now pay up, you creepy bastards!” Her horn glowed, and a pistol floated from a holster on her leg, pointing in our general direction. The smiles on the twins’ faces vanished, yet I noticed fear did not replace them; only irritation. They turned away from me in unison, leaving me to gnaw at the ropes binding me. I only heard bits and pieces of their argument; I was too focused on my bindings to hear anything more than tense and angry voices. The ropes tasted like shit, but if essentially eating them would get me out of here, then some bad taste I could deal with. Suddenly two shots rang out, one cutting through my bindings, the other planting itself firmly in my left foreleg. I cursed loudly with pain, curling around my wounded leg while more shots zipped by. Desperately I dug in my saddlebags for a healing potion; a bottle filled with bright purple fluid, which was supposedly able to heal most minor injuries, and definitely accelerate the healing of major ones. I could only hope it worked on bullet wounds as well as I bit off the tip and drank. My wound closed readily, though my leg still throbbed as I looked back up. The twins were gone; which left my original captor and…what in the Eternal Darkness was
that?

She was being attacked by what looked like ponies, but…weren’t! Their skin was desiccated, rotting. Entire chunks of hide were missing out of some of them-I could clearly see the ribs of one of the creatures. From their mouths came horrible screams, screams which should not-could not come from a living throat. And there were three of these monsters. Two had been dispatched by the unicorn’s pistol, and the last one had her pinned. I almost turned and ran, and mentally slapped myself for even thinking about it. Despite the ordeal, this was still a pony, and I couldn’t just stand idly by as she was torn apart by these…things. Also, it was my mission to find out what was going on out here; what better way than to ask a resident?

I didn’t even bother with the Zebra pistol at my side; with my aim, I’d probably just kill her if I hit anything at all. Instead I charged the beast, slamming into the side of it with all the strength I had. I felt bones in the thing break as we landed, and grinned in triumph. Yet even broken, it still tried to…bite me?! Rotten teeth gnashed as the beast screamed, pushing with inequine strength against me, inching closer and closer to my throat. Any and all hoof-to-hoof technique I had learned in the stable left me as I struck indiscriminately, no longer trying to wound or kill, merely trying to keep my throat intact! There was another gunshot, and the beast’s head exploded in a shower of bone, blood, and brain matter…all over my face. I blinked a couple times, and proceeded to scream.

* * *

“So they’re called ghouls, you say?”

“Yes.”

“And they’re ponies?”

“No.”

“But they were ponies?”

“Yes.”

“So what happened to them?”

“Celestia’s bleeding asshole, kid, do you ever shut up?” The mare snapped at me as we walked along a ruined road to…somewhere. After the…ghouls, I guess they were called, and my less-than-professional conduct, my captor had suggested I travel with her. By suggest, I mean she floated that pretty little 9mm pistol to my face and I just sort of followed suit. Since then, I hadn’t been able to get anything more than a “Yes” or “No”, from her. So far, I’d learned that those twins were not her friends, nor were they these…ghoul things, and ghouls used to be ponies, but weren’t anymore. My leg still throbbed from one of her bullets, which began to trouble me. I knew almost nothing about medicine, but weren’t healing potions supposed to, you know, heal? It was unsettling, to say the least. I wanted to ask where we were going, but she knew how to use weapons much better than I did-even without weapons, apparently I just couldn’t operate in a real combat situation. So I remained silent.

Luckily, I didn’t have to remain this way for long. Ahead of us loomed a wall of scrap metal and broken concrete slabs, with a gate spanning the width of the road. Armed ponies in robes patrolled the top of the wall, and there were more at the gate. I noticed some had weapons that were almost as long as they were! Others had guns almost as large mounted on saddles. All of them wore robes which covered their faces. I wondered how they could see…My PipBuck chimed, letting me know I had reached “Sukawaka”.

“Halt! State your business, travelers!” One of the robed ones near the gate, this one with what looked like two shotguns on his saddle, called out. I stopped, but my companion paid them no mind as he continued walking forward, shoving me along with her.

“Just follow my lead.” She muttered, before answering the call. “Peace, Brother. We are merely passing through as we decide our next destination.” She said as we approached the steel gate. I could see the ghost of a smirk, and nothing more, beneath the hood of the shotgun-pony.

“Ah, Sunny. Always a pleasure, Sister. Just know that we’ll have our eye on you and your…friend, here.” He mused, a glow from beneath his hood opening the gate. y companion grunted something in understanding and walked in, me limping after her.

“So…” I started.

“Not. One. Word.” She hissed back. You know, as much of a shut in as I could be back home, at least I wasn’t alone. Here, even though I had (hostile) company, it still felt as though I were travelling alone. It kinda sucked. I put the thought aside for now, taking a moment to look at this…settlement around me.

This place had been bombed. Not recently, oh no, recent would describe the retrofitting and rebuilding. No, this place still bore the scars of heavy bombing. It must have been a small town before whatever happened, well, happened. There were two roads: the one we had been walking on bisected by another road, one whose ends had long since faded. The buildings themselves were clustered around the intersection mostly, with signs designating them as “Supplies”, “Bar”, and a large cross with butterflies I assumed marked the location of…well, I wouldn’t really call it a hospital. More of a shack, really. Nonetheless, I would have to pay it a visit; the recently healed area had gone from merely painful to painful and discolored. I began to limp to said shack, but the cold steel against the back of my head told me that it would have to wait. “No.” Sunny said simply.

Alright, that was enough. “What is your problem, lady?” I demanded, whirling around to glare at my companion, pistol now at my forehead, “I saved your life, and the next thing you do is point a gun at me? The first thing you do upon meeting someone new is to whack them unconscious? What is your deal?” The pistol floated away from my face as her eyes narrowed.

“My problem?” she growled, “My problem is that I owe some very bad ponies a lot of caps. My problem is that when I had a chance to pay them back, a dumb little stable buck had to pull a stunt. A stunt that now probably has even more very bad ponies after my head! Now I’m stuck dragging you around until I figure out what to do.” Well, that certainly answered some questions, but it raised a few more.

“So I wasn’t supposed to save you from that ghoul? If I’m such a problem, why not just leave me the hell alone?” Also, what the hell was a cap? I internally shook my head; that I could figure out later. Important things now.

Sunny snorted, looking away. “Because if you’re not with me, I’m dead. If you are with me, I still have a chance. And if you had just let me die, I wouldn’t have to worry about what they’re going to do to me when they find me.” Her tone went from angry to fearful as she spoke, and my mind went from confused to even more confused. Not just with her, but with this whole damn situation! I opened my mouth, but she silenced me with a look, trotting away towards the bar. Left to my own devices, I headed to the medical shack.

* * *

The interior of the shack looked, believe it or not, worse than the outside. Errant and ancient-looking papers littered the floor, sharing the space with used needles and what I hoped wasn’t dried blood in places. There were a few cushions in the waiting/reception area, one of the two rooms. I assumed the other was for-actually, after the things I’d seen today, I didn’t want to assume anything ever again. I limped up to the desk, where a blue mare, the only pony in the building that I could see, sat reading a magazine. “Uhm, excuse me, uh, Sister?” I asked.

The mare looked up with a small flutter of her…wings? “Yes, Brother?” she responded simply, while I just stood there gawking. I’d heard of pegasi, they…I couldn’t actually remember what all they did. I did know they were a major fighting force in the war, but that was about it. But to actually see one, it was amazing! This is what I came out here to learn, not get beat over the head and held hostage! .Her cutie mark was…odd, though. Not to say any cutie mark was any weirder than the next, but the cloud with a brownscale rainbow lightning bolt looked as though it had been burned into her flesh. The mare just sighed, looking down at my Stable 81 barding. “Right, stable pony. One, if you’re not in a robe, and you still have your junk, please don’t start with that ‘Brother, Sister’ crap. Two, yes, Pegasi exist, no, there aren’t many of us down here, now can I help you?”

I closed my mouth, only just realizing it was open, and coughed. “Uhm, sorry…could you take a look at my leg? I think it’s infected or something…” I said, holding up my hoof and making a mental note to ask about the whole junk thing later. Was it supposed to be swollen like that? Without a word, she grabbed my leg and started peering at it curiously.

“Butcher.” She said simply.

“Excuse me?” What? What did she mean? Was she going to have to take off my leg?

“My name, it’s Butcher.” She said with a chuckle, turning my leg this way and that.

“Oh, uh, Close Call.” I replied, “So am I gonna live?”

“Sure, looks like your run of the mill gunshot wound. I take it you didn’t remove the bullet before drinking the healing potion?” Wait, you had to do that? See? More learning! Butcher didn’t wait for me to answer; she grabbed what couldn’t have been a sterilized scalpel from her desk and, holding it in her mouth, sliced open my leg and dug out the slightly flattened bit of lead, letting it fall to the floor. She then wrapped the wound in a healing bandage, and immediately I began to feel better.

“Hey, thanks!” I said as she released my leg, giving it a few practice kicks.

“Yep. Good thing you came when you did; a few more days and that could have been bad. That’ll be thirty caps.” She said with a prim nod, looking at me expectantly. Caps? This was the third time I’d heard someone use that word concerning money-perhaps a new form of slang? “I’ve got some bits, if that’s what you mean…”

She just sighed again. “Damn, you really are right of the stable, aren’t you?” I heard the door open again before I could answer, in strolling a familiar brown unicorn.

“I’ve got him, Butcher.” Sunny said, floating out a small sack of what I assumed were caps onto my doctor’s desk.

“Ah, Sunny. Always a pleasure.” She replied, her tone implying anything but pleasure. The two glared at each other for a moment, each pair of eyes threatening bodily harm as they narrowed in unison before I interrupted. “What is that?”

There wasn’t much on Butcher’s desk, but beside the bag of currency was a small statuette. It depicted an orange earth pony mare in a cowboy hat bucking…something. From my experience, I assumed it was somepony’s face. It was her face, however, that struck me-that drew my eyes to this little, oddly clean, piece of the detritus. Not so much her face, but her smile. So far, what I had seen of the outside had been desolation, violence, and pain-oh god the pain-but this statuette, this representation of some unknown pony, seemed to radiate…innocence. It embodied a better time, a better place. A place where a pony went to the doctor because of a cold, not because of a bullet was embedded in their leg.

“That? Have it, I’ve been using it for a paperweight.” Butcher said, not taking her eyes off of her adversary. I stepped around the desk, peering at the little orange pony. On the base were the words “Be Strong”. Looking at this little pony, I felt I could be strong. Smiling inwardly, I carefully grabbed the statuette and placed it in my saddlebag.

“Is that all?” Sunny asked flatly, she too not taking her eyes off of the good doctor. It took a second for me to realize she was, in fact, talking to me. I nodded mutely, not wanting to say anything that may kick off hostilities. Or rather, more hostilities.

* * *

“What happened?” I asked, looking up at my temporary roommate. There was an empty house toward the edge of town that was used for travelers in which we’d taken up residence in for the night. There were mattresses that look as though they’d been made around the time Stable 81 closed, but it was certainly better than the floor. Since Butcher’s office, Sunny had just been lying there, staring into space, while I took a closer look at my newfound friend. I was now able to notice the three apples on her flank, and her deep green eyes-only a shade darker than my own. For some reason, it only enhanced the feeling I’d gotten earlier-the one of innocence, of light, amongst a dark world. At the same time, however, one could only stare at a tiny orange pony for so long before I began to go insane.

My unicorn friend-okay, violent acquaintance-looked up at me, raising her eyebrows. “Long story. We don’t like each other.”

“No, I mean out here. We were always taught in the stable that Equestria was this magical, colorful…living place. Then I come out here, and I have just enough time to admire the craters and dead trees before you hit me over the head with a stick.”

Her eyes widened, the expression on her face switching from the cynical pissiness I’d seen in my short time with her to almost genuine concern, like one would look at a foal that still wet the bed even after receiving their cutie mark. “Seriously?” she asked, “What the hell did they teach you? I mean, I’ve met stable ponies before, but…” she blinked a few times before asking, “Why do you think your stable was sealed in the first place?” Wait, other stables? The others had been used?

“We’re a research stable. 81 was sealed during the war so we’d have a safe, stable environment to work in. No pun intended. Why? What happened?”

Sunny just looked at me, trying to discern if I was actually being serious, before sighing. “So you don’t know about the war?” I shook my head. I knew about a war, sure, but not what had come of it. Where was she going with this? “Isn’t it obvious?” She asked, “We destroyed everything. Zebras launched their megaspells, we launched ours, and the rest is history.”

I was speechless. Destroyed, really? There was no more Equestria? No more ministries, no more princesses, no more…anything? Was that why we’d stopped receiving information and specimens? Is that why Stable 81 had been sealed? I mean, that was the primary purpose of the stables, wasn’t it? To protect pony populations in the case of megaspell attacks? But there would be something in our records of a megaspell attack sealing the stable, but none of us knew about this. It certainly explained the destruction, the unwashedness and general grunge of everything around me. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes for a moment. Well I had been sent out here to find out what had happened, and that’s what I was going to do. Not for just to Equestria, though-also what had happened to me. Sunny had been waiting for me at the stable entrance; somepony wanted something from either me or my stable, and I was going to find out what and why. “You’re not going to cry, are you?” Came that cynical tone, causing me to open my eyes and look back up at her. There was no sadness in my eyes-only conviction. I was going to complete my mission, go back to 81, and have a long discussion with our beautiful Deduc Indagator. “Look, you seem like a decent pony, but like I said: I’ve got debts to pay and you’re my ticket to Tenpony. Nothing personal, just…business.” Sunny continued. Wait, so even after…?

“Didn’t those ponies try to kill you? Like, sic ghouls or whatever on you? What makes you think that they won’t just try again?” I asked incredulously. Was she actually being serious? Those ponies clearly meant to renege on their deal, and I guessed they would again.

“Don’t worry about it. Just think of it this way: you want answers, I need caps, you can’t fight for shit, and if I don’t have you with me when we get to Whinnyapolis, we’re both dead anyway.” What choice did I have?

* * *

So a few lessons I learned from Sunny that night: One, caps-yes, bottle caps-were money. Ponies were willing to commit kidnap and murder for bottlecaps. Two, Sukawaka was an outpost for The Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Purity, an odd mix of gang and cult that believed when every pony was wholly and truly pure, the princesses would return and restore the land to its former beauty and life. Everypony else just called them the Gelders-it didn’t take me long to guess why. The males apparently went through a ritual of castration upon joining, in order to purify their thoughts and actions. They also forsook their names, choosing instead to call each other “Brother” or “Sister”. Everypony in Sukawaka was a Gelder, sans Butcher and Double Shot, the owner of the bar. The bar, of course, was for any travelers through the town-of course the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Purity didn’t drink. Three, and most important according to Sunny, was my brief lesson on magical radiation. It was everywhere-any and all water sources that didn’t come from a talisman, any bit of food, and there were pockets of it just in the air, especially around detonation sites, even after two hundred years. Luckily, my PipBuck would be able to pick up when rad levels rose above their normal ambient levels. Four, ghouls were ponies who had been exposed to too much ambient radiation for too long, or a lot of radiation at once. Not all ghouls were like the ones we’d fought; that’s just what happened when they went feral. Also, that cloud cover wasn’t just today’s weather; it was every day’s weather. Apparently I could ask Butcher for details. I had tried to get some personal information about Sunny herself, but to no avail. All I got was “Don’t ask”, “Don’t worry about it”, and finally, “Shut the fuck up, kid!”-before lying her head down and at least pretending to fall asleep. Nonetheless, I’d recorded the conversation to my PipBuck; the beginning of a study on postwar culture?

Now it was a new day, day two of Stable 81’s Great Research Expedition. Sunny and I were in the shack that had been marked “Supply” to trade in my barding for something less ubiquitous with “easy target: please come rob me and rape my tender virgin asshole before murdering me”. Her words, not mine. The Equestrian Wasteland, though primarily using caps, also appeared to use a barter system. I traded my bits (which were worthless to anyone but collectors), my pistol (which was worthless to me), and my ammunition (which was worthless without my pistol-Sunny’s used a different kind or something) for what I thought was a decent chunk of change. Nowhere near the five thousand Sunny needed, but enough to get me some light barding, nothing too fancy or heavy. A red sweater with a dark blue vest felt much more comfortable than whatever they’d made stable barding from. It even came with a bandolier! With pouches! I wasn’t much of an archeologist, but I’m sure a few samples from out here would certainly turn heads back home! I also picked up a pair of sunglasses-even with the cloud cover, it was much brighter out here than in my stable. These items, plus a few healing potions and bullets for Sunny’s gun and we were on our way. I didn’t know anything but bartering, but something told me we’d gotten hosed. Perhaps the way Sunny and the shopkeep’s eyes narrowed at each other at the same time, combined with the “Sunny. Always a pleasure, Sister.” What had she done to these ponies? What was she going to do to me?

* * *

“Whoa, easy there.” Whispered Sunny, stopping me with a hoof and a nod ahead. We were on our way to the Whinnyapolis Ruins, supposedly making a stop somewhere to deliver a message to a Gelder-I wasn’t keen on the details, I was too busy thinking of what I could put into all of these pockets-where she hoped to essentially trade me for her life, and where I hoped to get some answers…and hopefully not be handed over like an unwanted package in the process. So far we’d encountered a few wasteland creatures; a winged, extremely malformed insect-thing Sunny called a bloatsprite, as well as overly large cockroaches-both of which were easily dispatched. While technically not a part of my mission, I took a note on my PipBuck about what effect radiation appeared to have on native Equestrian wildlife; if the rest of 81 followed me outside, they would need this information. Now we were on a ledge, looking down at a small town that looked largely abandoned, aside from the usual bombed-out look prevalent out here. My PipBuck let me know that we’d reached “Falmalla”. “Come on, we’re going to go around it. Make sure you stay quiet.” Sunny continued in hushed tones.

My smile was one clearly recognized in Stable 81: it was the smile that appeared when I was going to do something…memorable. “Sorry, there’s something to be learned here, and I don’t plan on missing one iota of info while I’m out here.” I apologized, ignoring her curses as I slid down the hill and began to trot towards the ruins.

“Stop! Stop and we’ll kill you!” Came a shout from one of the homes. Wait, don’t they mean, ‘stop or we’ll'-shit, this was a mistake! Gunfire raked across the open ground as I ran for cover, more shouts and laughter accompanying the deathly rattle. I vaguely heard Sunny fire a few shots back, however I was too busy diving through the shattered window of what looked like a school to help. This turned out to be bad idea number two, as I was immediately tackled from the side upon landing, a dirty pink pony trying to beat me to death with her bare hooves!

“Mmmm! We’re gonna have fun with you!” She giggled as we struggled. You know, for a malnourished wasteland pony, she was strong! In the corner of my eye, I saw another bloody, ragged-looking pony wielding a sledgehammer in his mouth come charging in, swinging wildly. With the strength that came with the fear of a very possible death I shoved the pink mare off of me, using the momentum to roll away before my face made friends with the end of that hammer! The hammer pony recovered nearly as quickly as I did, swinging again wildly just as I got to my feet. Old desks clattered as I danced backwards, trying desperately to keep out of range of that steel head, trying to think of what to do next. Meanwhile, the pink mare was back on her hooves and charging me, either unaware or uncaring of her friends’ own attacks. The sledgehammer connected with a sickening crunch of bone as the mare’s skull caved in, and she fell to the ground in a twitching heap. I didn’t have time to contemplate the first time I’d ever seen somepony die as Sledge, completely ignoring his friend, resumed his relentless attack, causing me to resume my backwards dance. Soon I would run out of room-he’d have me against a wall, and then what? My mind scrambled to remember my lessons from 81; what would Parum do?

* * *

“Never retreat!” My little sister shouts as I dance backwards, avoiding a very deadly-looking zebra spear wielded by one of Stable 81’s combat instructors. “You are always advancing! It doesn’t matter if your steps are tiny; wherever you go, you are constantly advancing, constantly moving forward! As soon as you retreat, you’re dead!”

“If I get within range, I’m dead!”

“Then get inside its range! If you get close enough, Close, then he really can’t do anything! Now do it!”

* * *

A little orange pony in my head to me to be strong, to stand up and fight for my life-

* * *

-and at the instructor’s next thrust, I-
* * *

-ducked under the weapon, simultaneously stepping forward and turning, following up with a rear hoof kick into his throat. My opponent staggered, dropping the sledgehammer as he coughed. I kept up my advance, not letting him back up as I had, either blocking or dodging his wild kicks as I firmly planted my own. I wasn’t really thinking out the attacks or evasions- I was “in the zone”, as it were. So I was not able to stop myself from rolling aside his next blow and planting both hooves into the side of his face. There was a snap, and my opponent fell to the floor. One twitch, two twitches, then stillness. My haze lifted, and I sat down hard on my rump, looking, really seeing what I had just done. With no more thought than it took me to breathe, I had taken the life of another. Not merely a ghoul, or a bloatsprite or radroach, but an actual pony. Something with a mind, a soul; something which had once dreamed dreams and schemed schemes, who had been a young colt, who maybe had a colt or filly of their own to take care of. I shook uncontrollably, vomiting up what food was in my stomach. There were more gunshots outside, and finally another pony burst into the school, panting “We’ve gotta go. I don’t know where the rest of them are, but I don’t want to be here when they get back!” I couldn’t even look at my companion; I could only stare at the pony whose life I had taken with hardly a thought.

“I-I killed him Sunny…I was only trying to defend myself, I didn’t mean to kill him!” I stammered, nearly on the verge of vomiting again when she bucked me so hard I saw stars.

“It doesn’t matter now! If we’re not out of here soon, you’ll be as dead as he is! Now let’s go!” Sunny shouted, half-dragging me out of the decrepit schoolhouse. Once outside, I could hear shouts in the distance; the rest of them, I assumed. Sunny gave me another shove, and I sucked up my shame and revulsion and ran. We both ran, ran until we were well away from Falmalla.

* * *

“Are you going to mope the rest of the way to Whinnyapolis?” Sunny pouted. We’d set up camp in a ruined gas station for the night after running and dodging potshots most of the day. I hadn’t said another word since Falmalla; no questions, no observations, not even the occasional audio log to my PipBuck. I hadn’t felt like talking, I still didn’t. I only felt like looking at my hooves and trying not to think about what had happened, which seemed to annoy my companion to no end. “So you killed somepony, big deal? No one cares; it’s the way of the wasteland. Ponies die all the time. Get over it.”

“I care!” I screamed, rising to my hooves. “I care, alright? That pony could have been somepony’s father, their brother, their friend! And I took him away from them!” I was shaking again, shaking as tears fell from my eyes. What was she not understanding? She may not care, but I did. There were ways one could defend themselves without resorting to murder.

“Do you know what would have happened if you’d spared them?” Sunny asked quietly. I just glared at her, shaking my head only in the slightest. “Either you would have died once he came to, or once his friends showed up, or you would have left him there.” She continued, “Then he would have woken up, dusted himself off, and went on to rape and kill actually innocent ponies-in either order. Those ponies we fought today were raiders-it’s what they do. They kill for the sake of killing, they rape for fun, and they do terrible things to the bodies. Just wait until you come upon a nest that they’ve inhabited for awhile. Those are ponies who have long given up being ponies…killing them is almost a mercy.”

I didn’t answer, just mumbled something about needing some air as I walked outside. It was a lot to think about…a lot I didn’t want to think about. What would Mom and Dad say? Or Parum? Insusurro? I was a murderer-no matter what those ponies did, murder was not justified. Would I someday become like them? How long before the outside contaminated not only my body, but also my soul?

“Looks like somepony needs a friend.”

I was on my hooves in seconds, looking around for intruders. “Who said that? Where are you?” I called into the darkness, neglecting my E.F.S. for a moment. When you didn’t really use these things, a pony was apt to forget about them. There were two white marks I could see: one which I assumed was Sunny in the gas station itself, and another to my left. Flicking on my PipBuck light, I shined it in the direction of my “friendly” guest. “Who are you?” I called out again. I guess the question should have been “What are you?”; in front of me was not a pony, but a…machine. What could have only been a combination of magic and engineering floated ahead of me, suspended by four thin metallic wings and magic, as well as sporting a speaker on its face. Had the voice come from here?

The little robot-thing answered my question, causing me to jump in surprise. “Well, my name’s Watcher.

“And it looks like you need a friend.”

Level up!
Perk Added: Iron Hoof-Whether you prefer stomping somepony to a red smear on the stone, or skillfully striking strategically, you now do +10% unarmed damage!

Author's Note:

Chapter two: complete! Again, thank you all for reading, I do sincerely hope you enjoy my foray into the wonderful world of Fallout: Equestria! It's been a blast writing this, and I do hope to continue on until Close Call's story is over. Again, any and all comments are welcome, constructive criticism is always very much appreciated, and I will see you guys in chapter 3!

On a related note, chapter 3 may be a bit late. Brave New World-that's all I'm saying.

On another related note, I can't draw, so if anypony would like to donate some cover art for this story, I would be eternally grateful.

-Z.I.A.T.

Comments

[KiaraTheUmbreon]

Why WATCHER of all characters?