//------------------------------//
// Prologue: Dewdrop 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: A Different Storm 
// by Dark0592 
//------------------------------//


My name is Dewdrop, and I’m sick. I have a grey coat and a pretty emerald green mane and tail, my mane is kinda short but that's because I don't want it caught in anything. I live in Stable 59, it’s not so bad here. But I’m sick, and I’m not the only one. Everyone living here is sick, but we all have medicine to take. It has a really long fancy name that the fabrication technicians came up with, but everyone just calls it medicine. Some of the others have started calling it Discord though, because of all the different ingredients. I don’t know much about that, though, I’m just a pipbuck technician in training.

My mom, Raindrop, is the pipbuck technician and I’m learning from her. Lately she’s really been pushing me to learn, and I figured out why. Mommy… mommy is giving me her medicine rations. It’s really not allowed, since they’re rationed so that nobody dies and they last as long as possible, but I’m sick… REALLY sick. We take our medicine every day, or the symptoms start showing. After about two weeks of not having enough medicine every day, or one week of nothing, most ponies die. One bottle of medicine lasts mommy most of the week, just like everyone else. Everyone but me. If I don’t take an entire bottle every day then I start to die, and we really don’t have much left. Rations are getting tighter, which is why Mommy is giving me hers.

The overseer even started sending ponies outside. OUTSIDE, where there’s like monsters and radiation and everything! Just to find scrap to sell to traders for more ingredients. Sometimes people don’t come back, sometimes they come back so hurt we can’t help them… But we need our medicine.

“Raindrop, you aren’t looking too good. Don’t tell me you’ve caught something from one of the scavenging parties? They’re always coming back with all kinds of new bacteria.” The stallion said to Mommy, he was one of the doctors. He was picking up his pipbuck that had gone haywire yesterday.

“I don’t really know, though that’s probably likely. They do crowd in here to get their scuffs and cracks fixed after every trip.” Mommy said back to him and I trotted over happily with his pipbuck.

“Oh, thank you Dewdrop! Did you help mommy with it this time too?” The stallion asked. I couldn’t help but nod enthusiastically as I helped him put it back on.

“Yep! My hooves are smaller so I can reach things that usually need a tool for!” I replied happily, basking in the small amount of praise. He gave me a warm smile and turned to Mommy.

“So what was wrong with it this time? I was sure I hadn’t spilled anything unusually corrosive on it.” He asked.

“Just age, they may have been built to weather a megaspell but some of the wiring isn’t. I replaced the coatings on the new ones to be sure it won’t happen again for a while.” Mommy explained, she was so smart! The Doctor hummed with a nod, gave me one last smile and was off. Mommy help her smile until the door finally closed and she drooped back down again, leaning against the desk of the workshop for support.

“Mommy, you need to take your medicine!” I said, she only gets like this when she forgets to. She gave me a little smile and fished out her bottle and the syringe, but as she extracted some of it and made to inject it I smacked it out of her hooves. That trick won’t work anymore!

“The real medicine! You don’t need to give me yours!” I yelled at her, in both anger and worry. She was my mommy! I can’t let her just die to keep me alive!

“How… did you know?” She said, her voice cracking. She didn’t even have the energy to be mad at me.

“I saw you filling them with fake stuff, and you’re not old enough for it to be fading… and I overheard the Overseer talking to you about it. Telling you to stop… so please, Mommy, stop. I’ll be ok.” I said to her, I couldn’t stop myself from crying. She held me close.

“I’m sorry, Dewdrop… but even if I wanted to… I’m out for the week.” She said after a minute or two of silence. That made my blood run cold. She can’t be out! She hasn’t taken it in three days, and if she didn’t have any for another week then she would die!

“No! No Mommy! You aren’t out…” I said. I pushed out of her grip and ran ro my room, bringing back my own bottle. She gave me a very stern look.

“Dewdrop, I am your mother. I will not take your medicine from you. I’ll be fine, I’m sure I can work someone out with someone.” She said, though she had a bit of a grimace though. I shook my head and practically threw the vial at her.

“No! No more night shift ponies in here after I’m supposed to be sleeping. You don’t have to take all of it… just… just enough. I’m ok with being sick for a week.” I tried to negotiate with her. She stared at me, probably because I knew another secret that she thought I didn’t know. How could I not? Those stallions don’t know the first things about acoustics in the living quarters.

“Dewdrop… no… I-I can’t…” She started, but I interrupted her. I got pretty good at doing this quickly, because I already jabbed her with the syringe and got a full dose into her. She looked like she wanted to pull away and stop me, but even with this little surprise she couldn’t risk wasting any of the medicine. She looked like she was going to start yelling at me, but I help my ground. I put the syringe back where it went and gave her a sad smile. Her eyes watered as her face softened and I hugged her. We both cried for a while, then.

“I can’t lose you, Dewdrop…” She said softly as we cried. I sniffled and nuzzled her face.

“I can’t lose you either, Mommy.” I replied. She looked at me and a little smile formed.

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to figure it out then huh?” She asked. I nodded and put the bottles away. There was another knock on the door and Mommy went to get it. I looked up as she mentioned who it is. The Overseer was standing there, looking her over.

“Good, so you did take it. After the good doctor mentioned you were under the weather, I had grown worried you were sharing rations again…” He said. His gaze softened as he looked at me, though. My little defiant stare still there.

“Dewdrop, I’ve gotta borrow your Mommy for a bit. I’m afraid the pipbuck interface in my terminal is on the fritz again.” He said, though I knew what it meant. He wanted to talk to her about me in private. Last time was when he was cutting rations, specifically mine. I tried to keep the facade of ignorance up and nodded, and I even fetched Mommy’s tool belt for her. He seemed satisfied and smiled, but Mommy’s smile had that knowing look with it. She knew I knew.

“Hurry back, I’ll make dinner!” I said happily, I even managed to keep my voice from cracking. I was rather proud of myself. They chuckled at that and started talking and left but I didn’t really care what they were saying at that point. I was in the kitchen anyways.

I broke down there, this was bad. Mommy was STILL sneaking me her rations and she was going to get in big trouble for it. And it was all my fault! Why did it have to be me that was more sick than everyone else? I didn’t even have my cutie mark for Celestia’s sake! It wasn’t fair that every other colt or filly didn’t even have to worry about medicine until they got their cutie mark. But I’ve had to take it since I could remember, and it was always more than everyone else. What did I do to deserve this? I just want Mommy to be ok…