> Fallout Equestria: Syndication > by The Wasteland Brony > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Foreword > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fallout Equestria: Syndication Prologue: One month after Sunshine and Rainbows Hello and greetings Wasteland Traveler! I am beyond thrilled that you came across this book (Or audio file, either or works) and have decided to give it a read or listen too. My name is Mystic Sapphire, Chief Technical Officer for Stable 124 in the Equestrian state of Coltorado…. At least, I was. I haven’t been back home in probably ten or so years by now. Yeah, the Equestrian Wasteland is my home now, especially after everything I have done for this little part of it. Yeah, this is my story of how I helped this part of the Wasteland in getting rid of something that was just purely evil. Of how I left my Stable on what I thought was just a simple quest to find something from my past. Now, before you ask, I certainly don’t hold myself in the same regard as the great Light Bringer or the Security Mare, and I really don’t think this story is as thrilling as theirs. But Sunrise convinced me to do this, so I have. You have NO idea how hard it was to get these made, but I did it! I’m going to shut up now, so that you may get on with the rest of this story, and I’ll let you be the judge on if this is worth it or not. Signed: Mystic Sapphire > Chapter 1: Transmission > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fallout Equestria: Syndication Chapter 1: Transmission Ten years before Fallout Equestria War, war never changes. Yeah, it’s that bullshit that got us all into this situation in the first place, isn’t it? The pure bullshit of fighting over resources. Was that really worth it to have the world blown to hell? Yeah, apparently. Fucking zebras, took it way too far. Anyways, let me get off my soapbox. Me? My name is Mystic Sapphire, just a plain ole 24-year-old Unicorn living in Stable 124. Yeah, nothing exciting happens in my life because of being stuck in a metal coffin underground. I was born here, I live here, and I will die here. Stable 124 isn’t that large, nor does it have a large populace, probably around 250 or so. You see, due to my absolute love for reading, I have probably read every book in the Stable at least ten times over, and that includes all the Stable Tec manuals, so I know our Stable isn’t the only one, if the number wasn’t enough of a giveaway. Anyways, I’m getting too sidetracked. Let the story commence. _______________________ My alarm was blaring on my PipBuck (Go read LittlePip’s story for more on those, but they are pretty useful) signaling it was time for me to get my ass up for the day. I groaned as I rolled over in bed and slowly opened my eyes, gently running my right foreleg across them to drive the rest of my sleep away. I proceeded to lift my left foreleg up, which held my PipBuck just above my hoof, and shut off my alarm. Jumping out of bed, I stretched out the rest of my body and stiff joints before letting out a yawn. I tended to get up before most of the rest of the Stable. I liked it, it was quite aside from the low hum of the overhead lights in the hallway, and the hum from the generators somewhere deeper within the Stable. Turning the light to my bathroom on, I looked at myself in the mirror. My coat was just as blue as the gem my last name shared with, and my striking silver hair looked like a complete mess, making the bluish grey accent streaks hard to see. My light blue eyes were coming more into focus as I blinked the sleep away. “Well, another morning in the Stable.” I let out a sigh as I stretched out my neck a bit, opting to hope into the shower since I hadn’t had the chance to do so for a few days. It had been beyond crazy lately. A few days ago, we had begun picking up some strange radio transmission that was coming from outside of the Stable. As the Chief Technical Officer, the Overmare had tasked me with attempting to decrypt it and figure out what it said. What we didn’t realize was just how complicated the encryption on it was. I have been working at it for days and have just started making some progress. It was driving me crazy though, just who puts that kind of encryption on a simple radio transmission? A short time later, I was out of the shower and was running a brush through my mane as I heard a knock at my door. “Come in!” The door slid up into the ceiling with a hum before an orange Unicorn mare walked in. There were plenty of orange ponies in the Stable, but there was only one that I had a crazy crush on, and she had just walked through my door. Mango Sunrise, my best friend and the mare I had a hard crush for. We first met on the first day of school, and we instantly clicked. Hell, we were pretty much inseparable from then on. You still would’ve never expected it, given me and her seem like complete polar opposites, but we’ve made it work. Her coat, the same shade of orange as her namesake fruit, was well kept, while her mane and tail, a combination of a darker orange and violet, did look a little unkept, but that was just the way she was. “Morning Mystic! Figured you would already be up by now.” She smiled over at me as she came over, where I was brushing my mane with a hairbrush that was floating in a field of teal magic. Seriously, still don’t get how Earth Ponies can do literally anything without the use of magic! “Morning to you too Mango.” I smiled back at her as I finished up. “Just finishing up?” “Yeah. Still don’t know why my dad keeps putting me on the night shift.” She let out a tired sigh. Mango had just joined the Stable’s security team, which was a given since her dad was the head of it. Exactly why we needed security for such a small Stable, I have no idea. But Goddesses, did she look exhausted. “Wish I could give you an answer for that one Mango.” I said to her as I finished up with my mane and set my hairbrush back down on the sink. I truly did wish I could have an answer for her though. Trotting back out into my room proper, I levitated a clean standard issue Stable-Tec Stable 124 jumpsuit over to myself and proceeded to worm my way into it. Once I was done, I looked back over at my best friend... only to find she had fallen asleep standing up. I proceeded to gently poke her in the shoulder, which jolted her awake. “I’M UP!” She blinked rapidly a few times before just letting out a sigh. “I fell asleep standing up again, didn’t I?” “Yes Mango, you did.” I gave a little giggle as I floated over my saddlebag that had all my notes on the decryption. I had a feeling it was going to be another long day for myself. “Do yourself a favor and go get some sleep Mango. You honestly look like you’re going to pass out any second now.” “Yeah… Yeah, I’m going.” With that, Mango followed me out of my room and, once the door behind us had closed, trotted off down the opposite hall from me, giving me a tired wave, which I happily gave one in return. Of course, before I dove right in to trying to figure out the encryption, I was starving, and I was gonna go eat… Hopefully there was someone in the atrium. _________________________ By the time I had arrived in the atrium, which was one of the biggest rooms in the entire Stable, there were only a few ponies who were up and about, and luckily the head chef in the kitchen was one of them. I smiled as I trotted up to him. “Morning Banana.” Banana Split, whose coat was as yellow as, well, a banana peel, and mane and tail what it looked like on the inside, was the Stable’s best chef in apparently the last fifty years or so, least that’s what the old timers like to say, smiled back at me as he finished sliding out some freshly cut fruit salad. “Well, good morning to you as well Mystic. The usual?” I nodded to him, who then proceeded to start dishing out a healthy serving of said fruit salad, a small serving of hash browns, and tall glass of purified water. Whoever found a way to grow potatoes down here a hundred years ago, I thank you, and I hope you are with the Goddesses now. I thanked him again before floating the try beside me and headed for my usual table. Given I was mostly up before anyone else in the department I worked in, or anypony else for that matter, I sat by myself and began eating. Thanks to the help of my magic, I was able to hold up my notes to skim over as well. I furrowed my brows as I kept looking them over, and over, and over again. It just didn’t make sense. Why would anyone send out a radio transmission with this heavy of an encryption on it? Fuck, it would be so much more helpful if I knew exactly where on the outside the transmission was coming from, then maybe I could be able to decipher it easier! I gently rubbed my temple with my hooves as I munched on a piece of apple. What was I missing?! I groaned to myself and gulped down some water, before soon just finishing up my food and picking up all my notes. I wasn’t going to figure it out by just sitting here, I needed to get to the lab. _________________________ It didn’t take me long to trot my way down to the science department of the Stable since, well, it’s not big. I levitated my saddlebags up onto the table that held the terminal I had been working with and booted it up. The screen emanated its usual green Stable-Tec glow, and the software I had been developing to try and crack the encryption stared right back at me. I groaned again, gently rubbing my face before looking back at the screen. It’s almost like the fucking thing was taunting me or something. “I swear, I’m going to crack you TODAY if it’s the last thing I do!” With that, I proceeded to plug my PipBuck once again into the terminal and… the screen went blank. “What the hell?” I blinked a few times at seeing the blank screen before it suddenly rebooted. I don’t know what I did, but the radio transmission suddenly started decrypting itself! “Praise the Goddesses!” I couldn’t help but yell. Something that I had been working on for what seemed like a week, just suddenly fixed itself! Well, to a degree it did. It still came out faint, and full of static, but I was able to make out some of it. “Hello? I hope this message reaches the Stable. This is *zeekk* Moon… I know that it's been *zzzzzzek* years since *zzzzekk* and I left, but I need *zzzzzzzkkk* Please, Overmare, please *zzzkkkk* Mystic that I need *zzzzzzkzkkkk* Please *zkkkkkkkzkkkk* And with that, the radio transmission popped into nothing but static, no more voice coming through on the other end. My jaw was hanging open after hearing everything the voice had said. My name, it had specifically said MY name! How in the fucking world of Equestria did this voice on the outside know MY NAME?! And did it say it had left the Stable, so does that mean they had come from here?! So many questions were flying through my brain at the moment, but I did know one thing for certain. I bolted out of the lab and galloped up the stairs. More ponies were starting to wake up, and the hall was getting crowded. I didn’t care though as ponies quickly got out of my way, I had to see the Overmare. _________________________ I barged into the Overmare’s office before the door was even fully up, faceplanting it on to the floor with a clang that nearly sent the lilac purple coated Earth Pony straight through the ceiling. “Mystic, what is the meaning of this?!” The Overmare, Lilac Petals, quickly got her own breathing under control, before running a hoof through her lavender mane to straighten it back out, then looked straight at me. I quickly stood straight back up, panting for breath. Yeah, wasn’t exactly the most athletic type in the Stable, but whatever! “Overmare… I… I plugged my... PipBuck… into the terminal and… the radio signal decrypted itself!” I managed to blurt out in between my pants for breath but hearing that clearly got her attention as Lilac’s eyes shot wide open. “Well, what did it say?” She quickly got up from behind her desk and trotted over to me, though thankfully she gave me the chance to catch my breath first. I proceeded to play the copy my PipBuck had recorded, and I could swear I could see the color drain out of her face, making the soft purple nearly white. “Overmare, why did this mare say my name? HOW does she know my name?!” I was clearly flustered by this happening, my mane already having started to frizz out from the stress it was putting me under. "Moon... and that voice." Lilac just listened to everything again before taking a deep breath and turning to look out the oval window. Clearly, she was realizing something judging by the look on her face in the reflection of the window. "Mystic... there's something you need to know about. We tried to hide it, and maybe we were wrong to do this, but... that message is from Ember Moon. Your mother." I could feel my heart sink at hearing that, and my brain trying desperately to comprehend what had just come out of her mouth. I was left speechless as Lilac kept looking out the window. “What we told you about your parents was a complete lie. It was my idea to tell you that they had just died shortly after you were born, but no. Ember used her gift of shadow manipulation magic to escape out of the Stable. Pretty much just walked right through the wall.” Lilac let out a sigh as she looked across the atrium towards the hallway that led to the Stable door. “Your father opened the door shortly after and went after her. We never saw them again, and I’ve ordered the Stable door to never be opened again.” The more she talked, the less surprised and confused I felt, the angrier I was becoming. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I blew up. “AND YOU NEVER THOUGHT TO ACTUALLY TELL ME THE TRUTH?!” The sudden screaming coming from me clearly caught Lilac of guard as she took a few steps back while I paced the room, fuming over everything. I stopped in the middle of the room, took a few deep breaths, then looked back over at her. “I’m going outside, and I’m going to find them!” I pointed the tip of my hoof out the window and towards the direction of the door. But upon doing so, Lilac shook her head before giving me a hard stare. “No, you won’t!” She emphasized that with a hoof stomp. “I won’t allow it! I already lost two ponies going out there, I’m not about to lose their daughter as well!” She then let out a sigh before gently rubbing her temple with a hoof. “Just, delete that audio recording and forget all about it.” Of course, she frowned as I just turned and galloped out of the room, already halfway down the stairs before the door fully closed. Once again, ponies got out of my way I was I thundered down the hallway, and in to residential. Once the door to my room closed, I chucked my saddlebags across the room, causing papers to spew everywhere as I collapsed down on my bed and just cried. I just cried. _________________________ It had to be hours, but I eventually ran out of tears to shed, and I just laid there and wallowed in my sadness. How else would you feel after being told that the reason you never had parents growing up was a complete and total fabricated lie? Yeah, exactly. After a bit longer, there came a knock at my door, followed by the voice of the mare who had raised me my whole life. Was that a lie too? “Mystic, can I please come in?” I honestly didn’t want to be bothered at the moment, if ever again. I just ended up grunting a response, which was apparently enough of an answer as the door slid up into the ceiling. Aunt Ocean Mist, a sandy colored unicorn with a light blue mane and tail that faded into white tips (Didn’t fully understand that connection till years later) trotted into my room, the door sliding closed behind her. She didn’t say anything at first as she slowly walked over and sat down on my bed, while I kept my back towards her. I could tell that the Overmare had told her about what I had found out. She just sat there for a moment longer before letting out a deep sigh. “Mystic I… I’m- “ “Why?” I barely let her get anything out before interrupting her, my voice crackling and weak from my hours of sobbing. “All these years, why was I lied too?” “Mystic, you have to understand it wasn’t my decision, it was Lilacs’ call.” Ocean turned so she could look at me, gently reaching out to stroke my coat, but I only scooted away from her reach, bringing a hurt expression to her face. “Your mother was exceptional in shadow magic. Manipulating it, transporting herself and items through them, everything.” “She just… left you with me one day and just… vanished. Your father went out the door shortly after to go after her, but he never came back, and we never heard from either of them again.” “So, are you actually my aunt? Or just some random pony she dumped me off on?” I finally rolled over and sat up before looking at her, my eyes bloodshot and fur on my cheeks streaked with tears. “I’m not related to you, but I was your mother’s best friend, so I was the only other pony she truly trusted to look after you. I guess she figured your father would follow after her.” Ocean sighed as she looked me square in the eyes. “Mystic, I’m sorry.” I didn’t think I had anymore tears to cry, but I found them flowing down as I just leaned into her, buried my face in her chest, and just cried. I could feel her wrap her forelegs around me and hold me tight, her cheek resting against the top of my head. “Shhhh.” She softly cooed as she just held me, letting me get the rest of it out. A good ten minutes passed before I moved myself away and wiped my eyes. “I… I gotta go after her. Ocean sighed, closing her eyes for a moment as if she was contemplating something, before opening them and looking at me. “I really wanna tell you no, but you’re a grown mare who can make her own decisions. Your biggest problem will be getting out the Stable door without Lilac noticing, especially since you’ll need the access code for the door… which is in her office.” Fuck. She did have a good point. The only way I was going to be able to get the door open was with the Overmares’ code, and to get that I needed to get into her office without her knowing, let alone manage to get out the door without Stable security- And that’s when a lightbulb went off. I looked back at Ocean, a look of clear determination painted across my face. I knew it was probably the single dumbest idea that I had ever had, but it was an idea, nonetheless. She could tell that I had had an idea and tilted her head to the side. “Why do I have a bad feeling about what you’re about to say?” “I need to talk to Mango. I believe I have an idea.” _________________________ “Hold on, you wanna do WHAT NOW?!” It had already been a few hours since my talk with Ocean, and having to wait for Mango to wake up gave me the time I needed to come up with my plan and with how I was going to tell her the news. After she did, she looked confused after I asked her to follow me down to a low trafficked area of maintenance so we could talk more in private. She had responded exactly as I had anticipated. “Mango, that radio transmission I was decrypting came from a mare who, surprise, is my actual mother that up and left the Stable instead of dying like I was told. I have to go out there and find her. For Celestias’ sake, she called for me BY NAME!” By this point, my best friend was pacing back and forth across the storage room while I just stood still and watched her. I could obviously tell that she had a bunch of things going through her mind. She stopped in front of me and rubbed her temple. “Mango, I can’t open the door to the Stable without the Overmares’ access code, and I can’t get to that, grab it, and make it to the door without getting caught by security.” She just stared at me as I explained all that, everything playing through her mind all at once. I had no idea if what I was about to ask was going to work, but I had too. “I need your help, Mango. Being Watermelon Rind’s kid, you’ve got to have access to the Overmares’ terminal?” Mango took in a deep breath after hearing it all. “Mystic, you have any idea exactly what you’re asking me to do?” She once went back to pacing across the room, only at a slower pace this time. “Not only are you asking me to sneak around behind both the Overmares and my dads’ backs, but to also abuse what power I have to break you out.” She stopped and looked at me again. “Plus, going out there is complete death sentence!” She thrusted her hoof upwards at the last part. “I know Mango, but I have to do this. I have to know why she left in the first place.” I slowly trotted up to her and put my hoof on her shoulder as I looked into her eyes. “Please, Mango, I can’t do this without you.” She looked back into mine, let out a long groan, before just sighing. “Fine. I’ll help you do this, but I’m going with you outside.” She then gave the smirk that I loved oh so very much. “Someone’s gotta look out for your flank out there.” You have no idea how badly I wanted to kiss her right there and then, but I just settled for tightly hugging. “Thank you so much Mango!” It was then that the last thing she had said hit me. “Mango, are you sure?” She just gave a firm nod as she happily hugged me back, the same smirk on her face. Clearly, there was going to be no changing her mind. “Yes, I’m sure Mystic. Now, what exactly is it you need me to do.” I couldn’t help but smile at her as I leaned in and told her the plan I had come up with. By this time tomorrow, I was going to be on the outside. I was going to be facing challenges I had never thought I would face before. I was going to be facing certain death at every turn, all in an attempt to find parents I never knew. But, knowing I was going to have my best friend by my side, I felt I could conquer it all. _________________________ It took the rest of the day, and most of the following day to get everything in place, but it was finally go time. Ocean agreed to keep Lilac busy and away from both her office and the atrium while Mango and I snuck inside, I hacked her terminal, retrieved the access code, and sneak our way out. If everything went according to plan, we’d only need to wait till the shift change around eleven at night to get to the door and get out. Simple, right? Ocean and I trotted together through the halls and towards Mango’s room. Once we stopped outside her door, she turned to face me. “I hope you know wat you’re doing sweet- Mystic.” She let out a sigh, gently rubbing her foreleg as she looked down towards the ground. That’s when I pulled her in for a quick hug. “I know you’re not my actual aunt, but you always will be Auntie to me.” I whispered into her ear, which caused her to give me a hug in return. I knew it was all hard for her, but she put on a brave face as we separated. She gave me a quick kiss to my cheek (something I still miss to this day) before around and heading down the hall. I watched her go until she turned the corner and went out of sight, really hoping this wasn’t the last time I was going to see her before turning and opening the door. Mango was inside, double checking a few firearms she had managed to get out of the armory. Course, she had her standard issue 10mm pistol loaded with rubber bullets, but she managed to sneak out a second one and a couple of boxes of actual ammunition. She looked over and smiled as I came in, the door quickly closing behind me. She swirled the gun she had in her levitation field around a bit before sliding it down into her holster. “You ready to do this? Because once we start, there’s no going back.” I took in my own deep breath before nodding. This truly was the point of no return. With that, we both headed back out the door and towards the stairs that would lead us up towards Lilac’s office. Sure enough, the area was deserted as I made my way up to the terminal on the wall beside the door. After plugging in my PipBuck, and a few key taps later, I hacked through the door controls and had it opened. Like I said, I’m pretty good with terminals and what not, plus her password was OPENMEADOWS, it kind of fits with her name. Once the door was open, the two of us snuck inside and quietly shut the door behind us. Mango kept herself stationed by the door as I made my way over to the terminal on her desk. A quick glance out the window showed how few ponies were out, keeping my chances of being caught low. At least that’s what I was hoping for. I pulled the connecting cord back out of my PipBuck and plugged it into the port on the terminal, quickly getting to work on hacking in. It was a little trickier than the door terminal, but I guess that was understandable. After having to backout a few times to avoid getting locked out, I cracked my way in. “Okay, let’s see here.” I muttered to myself as I started scrolling through the files. Some that did catch my eye were the entries of the Stables previous Overmares. Giving myself to read later, I copied those over as well as the audio logs before I finally found it. “Bingo.” I smirked as I came across the file containing the access code. Smirking in victory, I quickly got that copied over. “Ok Mango, I found it.” She nodded from her spot over by the door, keeping an ear close. “Doesn’t sound like there’s anyone out there but lets book it before somepony does show up. After getting unplugged from the terminal and getting it logged back out, I quickly trotted over to her and opened the door. Taking a quick glance down both halls, we made our escape and, making sure the door closed behind us, briskly trotted away. I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that this was all going too easy as we sneakily made our way back towards the residential section. I wasn’t going to relax fully until I was safe and sound in my room and getting myself ready. Luckily, we made it back without anything happening, and as planned, we parted ways and I went straight to my room. Once inside, I finally let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding in once the door closed. “Okay, now to get myself ready and just wait it out.” I muttered to myself as I went around and gathered up what supplies I had managed to get. I hadn’t been able to really get anything from the Medbay aside from a few healing bandages, four health potions and a couple packs of Radaway. I packed those into one of my saddlebags along with some food and water and put an extra Stable-Tec barding into my other one. Once I was done packing, I sat down on my bed and looked down at my PipBuck, staring at the file labeled Stable 124 Door Override Code. I couldn’t help but blink at that. “The fuck? I… thought it was an access code, not an override code?” Shaking that from my thoughts for the moment, I hovered over it and opened it up, quickly memorizing it to memory. Once done, I deleted said file incase we were caught later, and let out a sigh. I just had to play the waiting game now. _________________________ At a quarter to eleven, I met up with Mango outside her door. I had done the smart thing and had gotten a few hours of sleep to prepare myself for what we were about to go do. She was just walking out of her door as I trotted up. We looked at each other and nodded before heading off in the direction of the door. The plan was to hide out close by and open the door during the five-minute window while the guards did their shift change. Along with, obviously, not get caught of course. I still couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all still going too smoothly for the both of us, that the shit was about to hit the proverbial fan. Lilac had plenty of time by now to have discovered that her terminal had been messed with and come down to confront me about it, but she hadn’t. Mango could tell that something was bothering me as she glanced at me with a small tilt of her head. Keeping her voice down so we wouldn’t be heard, she addressed me. “Everything alright Mystic?” I looked back at her and leaned my head in close, keeping my own voice down. “I just can’t help but feel like this is all going too well for us. Just… a nagging voice in the back of my head saying we’re going to get caught any moment now.” She just gently patted me on the shoulder as we reached the hall that led to the door of Stable 124. The door that led to the outside world. We both peaked around the corner and looked down the short hall… at an empty guard station. It was then that I looked down at a little-known feature of the PipBuck that I had just learned about from the Stables PipBuck technician called the Eyes Forward Sparkle, or E.F.S for short. The compass didn’t show any blue bars, indicating nopony was there. “Well, better now than never.” I indicated to Mango and we both slowly made our way down the hall. Sure enough, we found the guard post deserted. Double checking the time, I figured that the previous guards got lazy and headed off early. I still didn’t want to run the risk of it, so I made my way over to the control panel, Mango not far behind me. Once I was standing in front of it, went to start typing the code into the terminal before looking at Mango. “You ready?” With her usual cocky smirk on her face, she gave me a nod. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” I nodded back to her, turned back to the control panel, and proceeded to flip the switch. Immediately, a blaring alarm sound as a giant mechanical arm swung down from the ceiling and connected itself to the door, the sound of metal-on-metal screeching sounded through the room as the arm pulled the door back away and rolled it off to the side. Once it was done, we stared out to the inky darkness beyond, a chilling breeze blowing in. “You don’t have to do this.” A familiar voice echoed from behind us. Turning around, I came face to face with both Lilac and Mango’s farther, Watermelon Rind. The green Earth Pony having a rather upset look on his face, which was mostly aimed at his daughter, who was standing firm beside me. I just stared back at the Overmare, the same determined look on my face. “Yes, I do.” Which was clearly not the answer she had been hoping for as she let out a sigh and shook her head. I didn’t back down as I took a few steps towards the door. “You kept this hidden from me my entire life and the moment she tries reaching out for help, you just want to ignore her.” “Don’t bother coming back then.” Watermelon’s gruff voice sounded, still looking straight at his daughter. “The moment that door closes, we ain’t opening it back up. Ever.” Which clearly caught Mango off guard, her stoic look faltering just a little, but she still turned to follow me. The two of them kept watching the two of us as we trotted up to and over the threshold of the door. A chilling bite in the air met us, both our breaths becoming visible as the same alarm soon sounded, the door closing on us and closing us out of the only home we had ever known. Leaving us in complete darkness, both Mango and I had the same thought, which we both yelled at the same time. “DEAR SWEET CELESTIA IT’S FUCKING COLD!” ___________________________________ Footnote: New Game Started Character Level: 1 500 EXP to next Level