A tower of engineering genius shone gloriously in the night sky. It's patrons however, nonexistent. At the foot of it, stallions and mares stumbled about in their uniforms, their minds free of the outside dangers for a short while. Security bots rolled around, ending any disputes anyone had. Outside, a masked stallion scanned the area, brought up an anti-machine rifle and fired, the .50 caliber bullet spinning through the air and then through a drugged out mare's head, smashing against the broken road. Far off in the hills, a buck watched from a pair of binoculars held by his magic. One of his colleagues ordering others past him. It all ended the night with a group of ponies around an unmoving body, a shallow grave being dug beside him.
War... War never changes. Even when atomic balefire has scorched Equus, war never changed. The weapons and tactics changed, but the underlying motive hasn't. Whether for power, lust, greed, or pure bloodshed, war hasn't changed. We were brought here today by a war fought by our ancestors over a reason that could've been changed if it weren't for stubborn aristocrats. And now, 'The Courier' is going to learn firsthand in the following future, of how war can devastate the lives of all that surround him. The only choice is, who to fight for?
----
"Hey, look who decided to wake up." My head was about to split open as that voice spoke. I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked up. I recognized a few of them as Great Mongolers but I couldn't put my hoof one the checkered suit.
"Can we just waste him already?" One of them spoke, in impatience.
"You Mongols may kill ponies without looking them in the eye, but I'm not a fink, dig?" Sweet friggin' Luna, I already hated him. 'Checkers' looked over towards me and held out my package, a simple platinum chip. He put it back in his pocket and looked at me, the smallest of smirks on his face. "From where you're sitting this may look like a run of 18-karat bad luck. But the truth is," He pulled out a golden inlaid pistol with his magic, "the game was rigged from the start." I barely had a chance to jump at him before he pulled the trigger. Then everything went white.
----
Nothing could describe the splitting pain I was rece-... Okay, maybe that time in Neighvarro was worse but still. I turned my head to the side and moved to get up, only to be stopped by somepony. I opened my eyes and let them focus on the pony beside me. The stallion was in an outfit you would see on many wasteland ranchers nowadays. He had the age lines of pony who knew the wastes all too well.
"Whoa there, easy pal! Got quite the head there. How about your name? Can you tell me your name?" What I wanted to say was, 'Apparently Mangy the Mutt.', but instead came out something a little more proper.
"Yeah, it's..... Shit, just give me a second Doc..."
"Don't worry, we can get it later. Let's get you on your hooves here." The Doc grunted as he rolled me out of bed and onto the cold, hard floor. I'm not going to lie, my head was about to say, 'Adios Brain!'. Letting my very stallion-ish whine roll out, I got to my hooves and waited for more of the Doc's instructions.
"Hmph, alright, let's get you to the vigor tester machine over there. No need to hurry, it ain't a race." He motioned over towards the machine against the wall. I stumbled over, threatening to fall a few times before the Doc helped me the rest of the way. I put my hoof into the slot and let the damned thing do it's judgement.
Strength : 5 (Damned machine's broken Doc.)
Perception : 6 (Better than a goulie, right Doc?)
Endurance : 5 (Do~c, the machine is broken again!)
Charisma : 5 (WHAT'D YOU SAY YOU PIECE OF SHIT!)
Intelligence : 8 (Ma always said I could've been an accountant.)
Agility : 6 (Flash! Ah~!)
Luck : 5 (Neighvarro was a bitch.)
"Well look-y there, maybe them bullets done your brain some good." The Doc let out a soft chuckle as I sighed at the results. Luna be damned machine.
"Alright. Only a few more tests before I can let you go. More of a formality really, not expectin' to find a family history of ponies gettin' shot in the head." He had the questioning eye as if to confirm his suspicion.
"Nah. Brothers were always street smarter. I had the notion to charge an alicorn with a penknife before." I said lamely as the Doc just stared at me, wide-eyed and mouth open. He laughed with disbelief and grabbed the papers I needed to fill out and threw them to me. Wow, seems like it was made for a school filly after my thorough completion of the test. I handed him back the papers and he scanned through them.
"Okay, I'm going to say a word and I want you to say the first word that comes to mind." He cleared his throat and began. I didn't really pay attention, so I just rolled with it until he hit 'mother'.
"I'd rather not Doc."
"Alright then son. Here's the results." He left me to my own devices as I read the results. Looks like I'm a problem solver, a fixer-upper, a.... Something. Looks like I got my new name. I looked around the house until I found him waiting at the door.
"Here," He stopped me before I walked out the door. "These were on you when the bot dug you up. Thought I'd find something about some next of kin but it was just about a platinum chip. Here's some of my old barding too. You didn't have none so you might as well take this. It won't do much for me." I took beaten armor he held out. It had a few holes here and there along with a battle saddle attached.
"Being a doctor seems to be more dangerous than I thought when I first entered the wastes. Wish Horse hadn't booted us out of 10." I thought over his words. Surely being any sort of laborer in the wastes was dangerous, but what did 10 have to do with it?
"Nice little nine-mil you have. You might want to get something bigger for that saddle though. Get a shotgun or something." He added on, handing me my trusty nine-millimeter Browner's Quick-Shot. Might be on the weak side, but I've got more than enough bullets to compensate. I nodded some thanks to him and proceeded to open the door.
I'm fairly certain there's at least a few other FO: E fanfics that go by either "New Pegas" or, "New Pegasus".
Frankly, I think Pegas sounds better and is more fitting, and people should use Pegasus when deriving a parody/ pun name for Los Angeles. But to answer your question, i've seen a fic or two with the same title.
May I suggest a title such as Wild Card, Aces High and so on?
I'm fairly certain that's the case now, i'd have to check a reliable source to confirm that because I think Obsidian may have taken the reigns or at least played a larger part in development, but it was originally created by Interplay, and inspired by the game Wasteland which made it's debut before the initial fallout game. So I guess you're right on that part.
And checking from your description, you seem to be writing a fic which is just FO: NV but with ponies added in. You may want to try going down a different path with your writing, but i'll take a peak to see if that's the case or not.
2954221
Have I mentioned you are my new favorite FimFic user? Anyways, I'll try and think of a better name. How does 'Dead Mare's Hand' sound? (Sorry, but for some God awful reason I have the need to make it a horse pun.)
As for the reason why it's just a ponified version of New Vegas is basically because I don't have the drive for crazy tale of adventure. In my mind I see myself either stopping or making into a mess of words that either, A. Make the main character completely overpowered or B. Viewer : '..... What did I just read? Are those attempts at sentences?'
But yeah, Obsidian has taken over the reins but Bethesda is just more publicly known. Back to the story, I'll see what I can think of to make it more... widespread than just the whole playthrough of New Vegas. .
Thank you for the help as you are the most I've gotten on this site. Hopefully you can enjoy this mediocrity.
2954554
Well imagination and differentiation is what makes something special and interesting to a reader. I'm currently trying to write a shoddy fanfic that is of the post apocalyptic adventure ilk but I have set it in a land far from Equestria because of the creative freedom it allows me. Plus the whole nuclear-ravaged Equestrian wasteland trope is one that has been done to death. I'm going to muddle around with a ton of cool ideas (in my opinion, anyways) involving magic and the arcane arts/ more archaic weaponry and technology. When it picks up i'm sure some people will find my writing riveting, others will hopefully just enjoy it.
What i'm trying to tell you here is to do something new and fresh that will really captivate your potential readers. If you're going to follow the exact formula of New Vegas, and FO: E in general, then you're not going to get far. Take chances with your writing, it will pay off in the end.
Heh. There may also be some comments coming your way about the title since the whole hand/hoof thing, but really it's up to you if you want to alter it or not.
Looks good so far
2954951
Thank you for the advice, because I certainly will try. But yes, I know the story about Dead Man's Hand. Very intriguing how someone's paranoia can save them.
2955187
And thank you for liking this mediocrity!