My second place entry for the Fallout: Equestria 500 members writing competition, choosing the theme "Before the bombs".

This isn't a tale of great heroism, of any great battle fought hard and won well. Deadbolt Tumbler never really had any driving force in his life, he didn't have a special somepony, he didn't even have any friends. He was content to do his job to the best of his abilities everyday and live out his life in peace as he always had, but the great war was now in full swing, and as it often does, fate decides to intervene. On the afternoon of his 18th birthday, he was drafted to fight for his country, throwing him into a world of new experiences that threaten to shatter his fragile perception of friends, love, and loss. Although he had written them off as nothing more than fables as a colt, he soon comes to see that the monsters from the tales of old, still roam the battlefields before him.

The wonderful youtuber Plagen Shiki has done a marvelous reading of this story! You can find it here if you'd like to listen as you read!

Frost Windchill is known to be a storyteller of sorts. Comfortable with telling the occasional sprite tale or legend, a child approaches him one day and asks for a real story.

And so Frost tells one- the story of his life. It's not a typical story, and there's more to it- just as there's more to the descendant of a Lunar Guard. It's a story not just of himself but the heroes he stood beside- big and small, legendary and obscure. But there's something amiss, buried lies between the lines.

After all, it's hard to kill memories when you remember everything.

(Cover done by the amazing Sw1tchbl4de. Check him out here! http://sw1tchbl4de.deviantart.com/

Larger version of cover art can be found here: http://sw1tchbl4de.deviantart.com/#/d4ovlt2)

Inspired by the heroics of the mysterious mare known as the Stable Dweller, Silver Storm, a guard of the town of Marefort, decides to go on a daring mission to rescue her captured brother. Of course things rarely go as planned and her attempts at heroism drags her into a tangled web of plots and conspiracies as warring factions vie for control over the last great city: Dise.

Spanish Version translated by Spaniard-Kiwi: https://www.deviantart.com/spaniard-kiwi/art/Fallout-Ecuestria-Heroes-996263393