Fallout: Equestria: Scootaloo's Pre-War Blues
Chapter One: You’re Gonna Go Far Kid
By: oki_all_day
<)-------(>
It was a dark and rainy night. Manehattan's skyscrapers towered above me as I walked towards the sky chariot stop. My tightly fitted businessmare's suit was soaked through, and squeezing my wings under me. I would need to talk to Rarity about getting this tailored better. As I walked, tufts of my fuschia mane obscured my vision of the chariot stop I was heading to. I lifted my right foreleg, and looked down at my new digital watch hugging my orange hide. It read, in glowing cyan colored numbers, ‘2150’.
"Luna dammit, I missed the last chariot!" I cursed aloud, not knowing that anypony was near.
A slim golden unicorn stallion under a raincoat slumped against a store window overheard my curses and replied with a slow speaking voice, "Ma'am, calm down. The driver of the Sky Bandit arrives in just 'bout ten minutes. He rides from here to Fillydelphia then to Cloudsdayle."
While I felt ashamed that I cursed so freely in public, I thanked him quickly and stood next to him. I took off my suit jacket, airing my wings out under the awning.
After a good minute of silence, he asked me "What brings a pegasus mare to Manehattan anyway?"
"I had to visit the Manehattan Branch of the ESE."
"The what?" he asked.
"The Equestrian Stock Exchange."
"Is that like a farmers market for livestock?"
Stifling a laugh, I replied, "It's similar, but really hard to explain. I don’t really understand it too much myself. I guess it’s for ponies to make money off of other companies."
"Do you have your own company?" he asked.
"Yep. Red Racer!" I replied a little too excitedly.
"So you're the one who makes all the little scooters that my foals love so much!"
"Well... I designed them, but..."
He cut me off, "I’m tellin’ you, my little ponies love them scooters so much. I can't believe I'm meeting you!"
"It's a pleasure to meet you too, mister umm..."
"Names Snails. And what's yours, miss Red Racer?"
(Snails… Hmmm… that seems so familiar… ohmygosh. He was Snips best friend back in Mrs. Cherilee's class!) "Snails, we've met already. I’m Scootaloo, the pegasus from Mrs. Cherilee's class."
"Well, no wonder you looked so darn familiar. Scoot, is there any chance I could get your autogra..."
He was cut off by a loud whoosh, as a charcoal grey pegasus with a raincoat on swooped in front of us with a large bus sized chariot in tow with the name "Sky Bandit" written across the side in a militaristic font.
"Let's get on 'fore I get my autograph" Snails told me.
We both climbed onto the large, magnificent ride as the sudden relief of being out of the rain washed over me. I sat down on the first open bench. Snails sat down right next to me.
"Now lemme see if I got some paper in my saddlebags... Damn! It's soaked through!"
I snickered for feeling ashamed of cursing in front of this stallion earlier, as he just cursed in front of a bus full of ponies.
"Aw hell, just telling the little ones about meeting the mare who made their scooters ought to make them so excited that they'll bounce around like they did when I took 'em to that Fun Farm back at Fillydelphia."
"The what?" I asked
"That brand new Ministry of Morale park, with all those balloons in the sky and roller coasters, and everything. It's a ways across town from where we live, but it's such a sight to see the little ones when we get there."
Sadness came over me as I remembered being so happy playing games and going crusading as a child, and how I hadn’t felt that way in years. My expression must've been obvious because, as I pondered these thoughts, Snails asked me if I was alright. I told him that it was a long day, and he seemed to respect that.
I had dozed off when Snails started shuffling around and told me goodbye.
"Huh?" I answered, barely awake.
"I gotta go. We've reached Fillydelphia.”
I told him to have a good night as I dismissed the thought that nothing fun was going on with this damn war. I saw the giant Pinky Pie shaped balloons not far from the chariot stop. As we lifted off, I noticed the slender golden unicorn walking along in the drizzle through the pitch black night. WAIT! What time was it? My watch read ‘0103’. Luna! was it late (or early). I guess I couldn’t do anything from this point except wait out the ride to Cloudsdayle. I looked around the chariot, and noticed that a familiar looking pegasus mare and I were the only passengers. She noticed me and waved. She looked so familiar for some reason. I just had to ask.
"Have I seen you before, Miss?”
"Scootaloo!" she laughed, "You're so silly. I was the delivery pony back in Ponyville. I was at the Manehattan ESE today too. Didn't you see the Absolutely Everything kiosk?"
"Hey Ditzy! Good gracious, I haven't seen you in forever!"
“I know, Ponyville seems so far away. I’ve been putting my own business to work. It’s a delivery business, but I sprained my wing last week, and I’ve had to pay a replacement flier. I've been seeing your work though. I've had so many Red Racer deliveries in the last few months. Your business is booming!”
"You know, Ditzy, maybe we could work out a shipping partnership…"
"Scoot, I was never the one for business. I just like helping out ponies and…”
“How about a payment in muffins?" I cut her off.
"Deal!" she said with pure joy as her eyes did that silly thing. "Anyways," Ditzy said, "how did you do at the ESE?"
“I’m not really sure," I responded, “I don’t really understand the concept of these exchanges. I met some salespony offering robots for shares, and I really didn’t understand what was going on, so I took one of them off his hands.”
“I don’t get it either. As I said before, I’m not the one for business.” I stifled a laugh as her eyes started to correct themselves.
"Anyways," I said," how long until we arrive to Cloudsda..." I was cut off as we passed above the cloud cover and the rain let up with a loud whoosh.
Ditzy smiled, "Just about five minutes."
It was such a relief to be out of the pouring rain. I turned to Ditzy and jokingly asked, “Who the hell decided to make it rain so hard today?”
Ditzy was oddly serious with her response, “There’s some weird official exercises going on. For the last two days they haven’t let my flier take my wagon above the clouds in certain areas without searching the goods.”
“I sure am glad I don’t have to worry about traveling with a wagon, ” I sympathized.
She smiled as her eyes started to do that funny thing again and told me, “Scoot, you know I’m just in it to help ponies, and I don’t mind if some friends want to make sure that everyone is safe.”
I was wondering why there was a need to search someponys goods, when suddenly the Sky Bandit slowed up, and touched onto the soft cloud surface.
The driver called back “End of line, mares. Let’s go, let’s go!”
We both trotted off the Chariot. I wished Ditzy a good night, and then turned and flew up the cloud paved street towards my apartment.
<)-------(>
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but my humor emitter array requires recharging," said my new robotic butler that I traded for shares yesterday. I thought the design was intriguing; six arms attached to a floating orb like body with three different ‘eyes’ that glowed a dim yellow.
"Aww... but your jokes are so funny," I lied, but I was bored, and my breakfast oats didn't look too appetizing (the robot was better at making water than food).
"My apologies, ma'am."
"May I have some water?"
"Certainly ma'am, here you are!"
I downed the glass and asked for more.
"Certainly, ma'am. Here you are!"
I decided to down the unappetizing oats and used the glass to wash it down.
My robotic butler floated (or hovered, or did whatever flying robots do) over to me as I placed my plate in the sink and asked exitedly, "Ms. Scootaloo, did you enjoy your breakfast?"
"Yeah, I did. Thanks!" I lied, but it was better than making it myself (or maybe not).
"I must tend to the cleaning that needs to be done. I wish you a good day ma'am!"
"Enjoy yourself!" I called out to the now unresponsive robot. I guess he could only do so many things at once. Just as I was about to open the door I heard the phone ring.
Milliseconds later, a certain robot called out, "Ms. Scootaloo, the phone is ringing!"
"Well no shit, huh," I muttered as I galloped to the source of the ringing and pressed the answer button with a light hoof step.
"Scootaloo!" asked a voice with a slight country twang.
"Hey Apple Bloom!" I answered with my happiest voice. "Whatcha up to?"
"Well, uh, nothin' much, but Ah want you an' Sweetie Bell to help me with something."
“Like what type of ‘something’?”
“Like ‘make us a lot of money’ type of something,”
"Okay, You have my undivided attention," I said with a trace amount of sarcasm.
“Well, now that the zebras could wipe out Equestria with their new shiny Megaspells, we need some form of shelter in case of an attack, and Ah was doing some research on ancient earth pony architecture, and Ah stumbled across some old pictures of old earth pony shelters that went underground everpony’s home, where they could hide in case of wild weather.”
“So?”
“So whose to say that these shelters can’t protect people from Megaspells. Provided if we could dig deeper, and reinforce ‘em with concrete and steel. This would save their lives if the zebras attacked.”
“But how are you going to put one under everypony’s home?”
“Ah’m not planning on doing that dammit. Ah’m planning on making huge shelters. Like almost communities!”
"So to sum it all up, you wanna throw groups of ponies underground because of what the zebras could do?" I asked (even though I knew what the answer would be).
"Well... yeah, but you made it sound bad. Ah meant for this to help people."
"Apple Bloom, you're basically making money off of chickens," I said in all but a nice way, "It seems wrong."
"Listen Scoot, if Ah wanted to make money off of chickens Ah'd ask you for some bits. This could save people, and it will make us money. Ah'll need to talk to Sweetie Bell before we go through with this, but keep in touch 'cause Ah'll call you when we can schedule a meeting between the three of us."
"Fine."
The phone made a monotone buzz to notify me that she hung up, as I stepped off of the talk button and turned around, I was greeted with a dim yellow light to the face, and an overly excited robot wishing me a good morning.
"AAAAHHHH! WHAT THE FUCK!" I screamed loud enough for my neighbors to hear me through the almost soundproof cloud walls.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I do not know how to respond to that," it said.
"Sorry, just please don't sneak up on me like that."
"Noted, ma'am."
<)-------(>
Find me on an old Appleloosan road out on the country soil,
Away from the hustle and bustle of the Manehattan highways,
Where the rainy skies steer clear from what I know as home,
and then you and I can start anew,
going through the things that we never got to.
Livin’ our life like we just don’t care,
We got an attitude without fear, so we’re never scared.
Stop for a moment, and think about where we’ve been.
Laugh at the fact that we ain’t goin’ back again.
The music played through the old radio sitting in the untouched corner. I wondered to my self how long it had been in that corner, and how long it had been on that frequency. It was early. Three o’clock in the morning early. No one was at the bar besides the bartender and myself. I wondered why Apple Bloom had told me to meet her here so early, then I remembered her 'idea'. I didn’t mind downing a few shots of AppleJackDaniels Whiskey, but at three in the morning it was different. My internal clock wasn't in the drinking mood (more in the sleeping mood) but this 'idea' was important, so I needed to stay sober and awake for it.
The bartender looked towards my way and started to ask me if I was alright, but he seemed to stop halfway through the question, and continued to wash the shot glasses.
I could totally do some shots I thought to myself. But the rational pony told me I could really do for nap, then the I remembered what Apple Bloom said when she called me this morning.
"Catch a ride to Appleloosa, and wait at the watering hole. Ah'll pay you the bits for the ride back if you can stay awake."
I wasn't sure if she’d been kidding, but that ride was expensive, and drinking would just make me sleepier. "Challenge accepted," I muttered to myself. The bartender glanced at me, but when I returned his glance, his eyes went back to the shot glasses.
He had a light gray mane with a bluish gray coat and a cutie mark of what else? A mug of cider.
I found myself dozing off when Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell walked through the door. The bartender’s eyes shot up to check out the new visitors, then they went back down to the row of about ten shot glasses sparkling under the dim yellow lights.
"Apple Bloom! Sweetie Bell! It's about time you guys got here!" I said with a happy, yet tired voice, and then sat back onto the stool.
“Ah’m sure glad to see that you’re awake. Ah just might’ve brought enough extra bits to give you for the ride back!” she smiled as she spoke.
I still wasn’t sure if she was kidding, but I hoped for the money and smiled back.
Sweetie Bell telekinetically pulled out her chair and kept quiet. She had a very tired expression. She looked far more tired than I was, so I let her be.
"Let's get down to business." Apple Bloom replied as she pulled out the stool in front of her.
Apple Bloom opened up with a very harsh but true fact, "After Big Mac's death, we've all been fearing the zebras..."
I winced at the words.
She continued without batting an eye, "...and after the zebras acquired their own Megaspells, we've known that they have something to wipe us out with. Now, Ah know that everypony’s scared, but that means that the people that can afford safety will be able use their money and be sheltered in case of an attack."
"But why does it have to be all the rich ponies? Everypony deserves shelter from an attack,” I interjected.
Sweetie Bell finally spoke up. "Yes, Scoot, everypony does deserve shelter, but there won't be enough of these shelters to protect everypony and like everything, there won’t be much supply, but there will be a lot of demand."
Luna dammit, why did she have to be right, I thought to myself.
"That's what Ah've been trying to tell ya." Apple Bloom explained.
"Okay, well I get it now, but can we do something like a lottery that elects spaces for poor families?" Dammit, listen to myself. Treating safety like a casino game. This war fucked ponies up so bad.
"Ah don't know, maybe..."
Sweetie Bell interjected, "How come it's always ponies? What about a stable for griffons?"
"Or what about the zebra citizens that live here in Equestria?" I added.
"Enough! We need to plan these stables and resources are limited. We'll probably need to number them or something." Apple Bloom stated.
"Like Stable One, Stable Two, and so forth?" I suggested.
"How will we order them?" Sweetie Bell asked.
Apple Bloom explained, "Ah don't really know just yet. This is a lot, and Ah don’t really know how we’ll handle it."
<)-------(>
I would like to throw some thanks out to a few of different people, so here we go.
sargecadet & okiinovice for introducing me to MLP: FiM in the first place.
Kkat for creating the amazing FO:E Universe.
sargecadet for convincing me to write this, and doing a lot of major editing (you can thank him for most of that little song too), and being a totally swag guy.
If you haven't read Fallout: Equestria, then please do so. Also, you should check out Honest Herds by 'sargecadet' if you get the chance.