//------------------------------// // chapter 5 // Story: Fallout Equestria: project human // by Gaz1997 //------------------------------// Chapter 5 “Wait, so your telling me , that ‘you’ and your friend here are more than 200 years old and both can regenerate from radiation and every other ‘ghoul’ that is what you calls yourselves can do it as well, seriously I’ve seen some weird s*** in my time but not as odd as this, no offence” “None taken, I’ve heard it all before and in my two hundred years and counting of living this c*** life I haven’t seen anything like you, well not that I can remember anyway since I tend to lose track of things over time” “ you have my sympathy, well allow me to help jog your memory, but may I ask do you remember anything before the bombs fell, anything about where you were or who you were?” “*sigh* I think from what I can remember, I was in one of the main cities that got hit first either Fillydelphia or Manehatten I’m not sure but I was there when the balefire came raining down, I was a refugee there amongst all the fighting, I think that at one point I heard some of the soldiers that I was held up with talking about this legend fighter called the ‘specialist matrix’ or something, he was erm oh what was he I cannot remember erm a-” “Human” mat suggested “Yes, wait how did you………….wait a minute, your him, your that ‘human’ from the war, but how can it be, that would mean you’re more than two hundred years old ‘and’ you’re not a ghoul in fact you don’t even look older than what late twenties late thirties maybe” “Call it a 200 year long cryogenic slumber and leave it at that” “well alright then but since you seem to have not seen what has gone on in the last two century’s Its probably best that I give you some information that could prove useful in your travels” He then went on talking to matrix and silver about everything he could tell them about Equestria in its current state from the grand Pegasus enclave to the steel rangers and the dreaded red eye, they were surprised at the least at what they were hearing “Also you might want to head to the nearest settlement not far from here, it’s called new appleloosa and its just north east from the ponyville ruins, that is if they try and kill you first heheh” “Ok then thanks, wait you said new appleloosa, what happened to the original town?” “old appleloosa is run by raiders and slavers, best stay away from there but from the look of ya and from what I’ve heard you could kill them all with one hoof er hand I mean” the ghoul spoke is his raspy voice “You mean hand, and thanks for the info, we may stop by if we have the time but we gotta be someplace else first, see you on the other side then” “good luck to you to then, till we meet again………..specialist, and I’ll be sure to spread the word of your return, folks need heroes, and at times like these they have to be strong, you got that I can tell” he said as he and his companion turned about and walked away to wherever it is they were going “Well that was an experience in never gonna forget, *shudders* remind me to keep away from radiation” said silver as he put is helmet back on and checked his equipment again Matrix let out a half mused chuckle “you never seize to make me laugh and to be honest I second your idea, come on we need to get to ponyville if were gonna have a chance at living in this hell hole, I think there is some things that’ll make you happy back our house when we get there” mat suggested, although he lived with rainbow and his two kids, he also shared the house with frost and silver since it was a two story four bedroomed house, with a basement which was then converted into an armoury when the war broke out. Mat then looked at his Pipbuck as a notification came up on his objectives page Objective: travel to Ponyville ruins and get to home armoury (Optional) travel to new appleloosa “Well looks like we have our plans set out, let’s get our gear and get going, who knows who else we’ll run into and I’m not liking the sound of those deathclaws” “True that brother” replied storm as he began to pack up his things as did mat, mat looked over at the pony he considered his brother, they had gone through almost everything mat had done since he first came to Equestria all those years ago, they acted like brothers, lived like brothers and they always had each other’s backs no matter what, and they had seen some s*** in there time, and since then mat considered silver his brother that in turn made him the uncle of his children but silver didn’t mind at all, in fact he enjoyed it. Mat looked back to what he was doing and picked the wallet he had dropped before he fell asleep and put it back in his pocket, he folded his guitar up and put it back into his inventory and placed his helmet back on his head, he glanced at the time on his wrist and it had been an hour since he was rudely awakened. He turned his attention to the group and saw that they were all ready as well; silver was just putting his knife back into the sheath on his chest and smiled back at mat Mat looked over the children and noticed that will the bothers and twist were wide awake his children were still very drowsy, we kneeled over to his children and plopped them into his lap and stroked there manes, he took the moment to look at his two amazing little foals He ran his gloved hand through his sons always frazzled yellow mane and along his silver coat he took note of his wings which like his mane and tail, where always frazzled like he had been stunned by lighting, rainbow dash had said to matrix that she wanted a son called lighting wings when she was older and when his son was born his look fit the bill and that’s how he got his name. His daughter had a blue coat, a lot darker than her mothers and a yellow and blue mane and tail, when he saw her for the first time she instantly reminded him of the American aerobatic team, the blue angels, so he chose to name her after them, he and rainbow knew they had the potential to become some of the greatest flyers in Equestria with the help of their mother and father and friends Once mat made sure his children had drifted of he carefully stood up and placed his children on his shoulders and waited until they settled themselves by clinging into his neck, he let out a small laugh as he watched his children roll around on his shoulders out the corner of his eyes, he picked up his rifle then looked back to silver and the trio and nodded, they nodded back and so they began resumed their journey towards their destination. *two hours later* it had become boring walking for almost two hours straight so mat pulled out his iPod and played some music out loud which him and silver where singing along too, “I walk a lonely road The only one that I have ever known Don't know where it goes But it's only me to me and I walk alone” “I walk this empty street On the Boulevard of broken dreams When the city sleeps And I'm the only one and I walk alone” “I walk alone I walk alone I walk alone I walk alone” “My shadow's the only one that walks beside me My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me 'Til then I walk alone” “Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah” “I'm walking down the line That divides me somewhere in my mind On the border line of the edge And where I walk alone” “Read between the lines of what's F****d up and everything's all right Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive And I walk alone” “I walk alone I walk alone I walk alone I walk alone” “My shadow's the only one that walks beside me My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me 'Til then I'll walk alone...” “Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah I walk alone I walk alone” “I walk this empty street On the Boulevard of broken dreams When the city sleeps And I'm the only one and I walk a...” “My shadows the only one that walks beside me My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me 'Til then I'll walk alone” As the song ended they both let out a laugh for no reason but it’s not like they didn’t care. As they walked up the next ridge and looked over it they immediately stopped laughing, what stood before them where the ruins of their home mood music Ponyville…………… They just stood there in silence looking at the destruction of what was left of their home, mats duster flowing slightly in the small breeze; he swore he could see ponies walking around the town like normal. Like ghosts of the past. He shook his head then ushered the group to follow him towards a small mound of rocks and dead trees before pulling out his anti-material rifle “Silver you got spotter duty, brother’s you got our backs again, keep an eye out, ok, good” he said before climbing on top of the rock pile and setting up his rifle facing the town bellow with canterlot in the far distance, silver climbed up next to him and pulled out his binoculars while the two brothers watched their backs and kept an eye on the other three kids. “Okay let’s see what we got here” said silver in his usual sarcastic tone “Towns a mess, a handful of buildings are surprisingly still standing; I can see that applejacks ironshod firearms factory is still standing outside of town also. One or two raider parties, one of those is on the bridge to sweet apple acres and sweet apple acres barn is still up as well” matrix said in a dry tone as he continued to look over the dead town, looking at the crumbling ruins until his gaze came upon one statue. The Macintosh war memorial Memories came flooding back about the tragic news of that one day where everyponys favourite farm stallion had given his life to save princess celestia from a zebra assassin, matrix had been on the frontline alongside him many a time, when he heard of his death he gave his deepest condolences to the rest of his family and he sent a personal letter with a picture of him, big mac and his squad to applejack saying he was sorry that he couldn’t attend the funeral and how great a soldier big mac was as he was a friend to us all. That was one those days where matrix kept getting thoughts that they were going to lose the war, But in the end………………………..neither side won Matrix snapped out of his current daze as he spotted movement coming from the barn of the farm so he swivelled his rifle in its direction and aimed down his scope looking over the dead trees. “Silver can you see anything over at sweet apple acres” asked mat “I see……….if I am correct here I’m seeing a grey unicorn filly, brown mane, probably in her teens, wearing a stable suit?” “Which stable?” “Erm, number two I make it” “Applejacks stable” mat said under his breath “looks like they maybe opening it up, unless she’s on her own” “Well she’s on her own, wait scratch that she’s just joined up with some stallion” As they watched the scene take place, they saw the stallion take off and eventually a small skirmish happen between the unicorn and the group of raiders on the bridge “Is it just me or did I just see her take down those raiders, on her own” said silver “Nope your just blind, as per f*****g usual” matrix replied sarcastically They continued to lie there watching her as she traversed through the town “Well I know for a fact that she has a chance of surviving out here” mat said dryly “I was thinking the same thing” a metallic like voice spoke out from nowhere, they both spun around aiming their weapons at whatever it was, what they were looking at was a sprite bot, used by the ministry of moral during the war, what it was doing here they had no clue, “Did that thing just talk” mat said to silver not taking his eyes of the floating bot “Yes I believe I did, you can call me watcher” the spritebot answered the two just shrugged before mat spoke up “What was that you said before?” “I was simply agreeing with what you said, she has a good chance with living out here” “Yes she does………..wait a second, I recognise that voice……..spike……..is that you” “………………” “Spike.................” “………………………..” “………………………..” “Yes…………it is me” “Spike………….how are still alive, in fact where are you” “matrix…………..I……………I cannot tell you for the enclave will find me, in time though you will” he said before he stopped speaking before some random fanfare music started playing from the bots speaker before floating of too wherever, ‘If that really was spike, he must be freaking huge by now’ matrix pondered to himself “Dude we’re going f*****g crazy without the use of drugs” stated silver “I know, come on, let’s get going” mat said as he packed away his sniper rifle and brought out Bozar, jumped of the rocks and started walking along the path with the rest of the group in tow, ten minutes later they finally came across the town entrance and what was once the market place, everywhere they looked they could see bones of the long dead bodies of ponies they could no longer identify. “This place is just a fucking graveyard” silver said flatly “Well at least pay respect to them by not treading on their graves” matrix answered whilst carefully walking around a dead pony’s skeleton They walked past the old bakery and onwards through the town avoiding the piles of bones when mat came across the statue he saw earlier, he and silver went up to it and saluted in respect before doing the same to the statue of celestia, the former leader of Equestria had resigned after the incident where some foals where murdered in an equestrian school, mat couldn’t remember all the details but he knew that the princess was devastated after the event and so she stood down and left it to Luna to run the country, with the help of himself and the ministries of course. Matrix smacked his head to snap himself out of his current thoughts ‘God I need to stop zoning out like that’ He carried on walking until he came across the familiar street on which he used to live on, he readied his weapon and instructed the others to do so as well as they approached the building, matrix looked over it, a fairly large two story building with an attic, the plants in the front garden were long dead and some of the windows were smashed in but the front door looked intact He went up to and tried the door, still locked after all these years, so he dug out his house key and unlocked the door, before he entered he motioned for silver and the foal’s to stack up against the walls on either side of the door, when he was ready he opened the door with one hand whilst holding his rifle in the other and slowly stepped into the main hallway the lead into the main room carefully looking out for and traps that could be inside. “Main room clear” he said in a hushed voice to silver who answered back “roger that, brothers, you keep an eye on the kids in this room, mat I’ll check the rest of the ground floor, you check upstairs” he whispered to matrix who nodded then slowly crouched his way over to the stairs Matrix slowly ascended up the stairs, the two hundred year old wood creaking under his weight and heavy boots, when he reached the top of the stairs he checked each of the rooms one by one until he came to the last one His and dashie’s room He slowly entered to find everything was still in place except for a few of things that had fallen onto the floor and that it was all covered in a layer of two hundred year old dust, he took another step forward when he heard the sound of glass cracking under his foot, he looked down and took his foot away, revealing a now shattered picture frame of him and his wife rainbow dash with their foals on the sofa on hearths warming eve years ago, he bent down and picked up the picture from its frame and holding up to his helmeted face, memoirs flooding in of the day that picture was taken before all the s*** happened. Flashback Hearths warming eve, 02:00 PM A few years before the bombs, Matrix POV (Not sure how long the war lasted in the original fallout Equestria so for now I’m just winging it but I’m guessing it was quite a few years) I just watched as the zebra hunter touch down in front of me, my ride home to ponyville where I’ve earned myself two weeks leave, I lean forward to pick up my bag and walk towards the vehicle and as soon as I step in a voice comes from the speaker as I sit down in the doorway as music starts playing le mood music “mares and gentle colt’s my name is honour bolt and with me I have the lovely gold star and we’ll be your pilot’s this afternoon, equestrian regulation’s designate this as a non-smoking vertibuck, for those of you who have the zebrica frequent flyer program, you'll be earning a hundred free bits this afternoon, and as always, the air sickness bags are located in the seat-back, in front of you” “bolt, go f*** yourself” I shouted over the mic to him in the cockpit he just laughs as he pulls the aircraft upwards then spins us round then heads for home, So here I am on my way back to ponyville, sitting in of the ‘zebra hunter with my legs dangling out of the side door of the vertibuck as the scenery flashes by after another long stretch on the frontlines, thank god that dashie has leave as well so now I can spend some time off with my family and friends since its hearths warming eve as well. The sound system was playing one of my tunes on my iPod from earth by Elvis whilst star and bolt where just having idle chatter, I wasn’t really listening, but I decide to join in just as I see another vertibuck heading in the opposite direction we’re going and somepony speaks over the channel “Zebra hunter, this is dragon breath go to UHF secure, I have some bad news” “Limo is a word night shine I don’t want to hear about it” says bolt back over the mic “It is not a word. It's an abbreviation of a word” says the voice possibly this night shine pony from the other vertibuck, I listen in more as they continue to bicker “Limo is a word in common usage. That is the key phrase in scrabble (they have it in Equestria), my friend, common usage” shouts bolt “No! If it's not in the pony dictionary, it doesn't count” replies night “It doesn't have to be in the pony dictionary!” bolt shouts “It does have to be in the pony dictionary! Listen, when we get back to base, it's coming off the board” night speaks as his bird passed us “You touch my limo and I'll spank you, dragon breath, you hear me?” “Yeah, Promises” says night shine before he cuts of from the channel flying away in the opposite direction “Bolt who the hell was that” I asked “Just and old friend from a few years ago, keeps end up playing this stupid game and I’m surprised we’re still at it” he chuckles ‘Wow this whole scene deeply reminds me of something but I can’t really put my finger on it…………..ah well it’s not important’ I thought as I readjust my sitting position to where I was originally simply gazing of into the scenery again as the music continues to play, A few hours later we have just flew over the town of ponyville and circle round to land in the town square, as we touch down I grab my bag and rifle and jump out of the vehicle into the snow and walk past the cockpit where I tap my hand on it to signal bolt to leave, just before he pulls away he mock salutes me whilst I simply give him a middle finger salute back then he fly’s away leaving a small cloud of snow blowing up so I have to cover my face since I had my helmet strapped to my belt Once he’s finally gone off into the horizon I take a minute to look around and the town, snow is covering most of the ground and buildings but that will change soon as winter wrap up will happen in a about a week or since the seasons had to change times slightly because of the war, after looking at the view I start my trek towards my house where my family are waiting As I walk down the street I see a few ponies milling about and it doesn’t take long for them to spot me and give a friendly wave which I happily return and keep on walking through the town but not five minutes later I end up getting tackled by somepony or somepony’s and I end up face first in the snow “Hmmmmmmhmhmmhmhm” (*translation* could whoever it is please get of) I try to shout but my voice is muffled by the snow but whoever it was got the message and finally got enough me allowing me to get up and a take a breath of life giving oxygen “Ok who is it” I say sarcastically as I turn around and get hugged by our friendly neighbourhood Lyra heartstrings “Hey there Lyra, good to see you too” "Hey, I missed you ya big ape ya know with you going off and getting yourself killed in this stupid pointless bl***y war” she said trying to copy my old British accent “And what a good friend you are and it’s good to be back home for a bit, hey you mind letting me go I want to get home and see my family, I’ll buy you a drink later sound good to you” “Yeah that sounds good and I’ll keep you to that, tell dash I said hi for me” “Will do if ya say hi to bonbon for me” I say with laugh “Anything for you my favourite human” she finally say before giving me a friendly peck on the cheek then trotting of back to her own home, leaving me to continue my way homeward bound, a while later I ended up on the porch of my place of residence, I knocked on the door before entering and sarcastically shout “Honnnnnnnnnnnney, I’m home from work” and almost instantly I’m tackled by my kids, “DADDY! YOU’RE BACK!” my daughter exclaims right in my face as they hug me tightly “Hey kids how are you two doing” “It’s going awesome daddy moms just making dinner” says my son with a smile Sounds good son, how about you two going into the living room and I’ll be there ina minute while I go talk to mommy” “Ok dad” they both say in unison then sprint of into the lounge area, I put my bag down in the hallway and leave my rifle and pistols on the table top that is in the hallway but I make sure there on safety before walking into the kitchen “Hey honey, guess who has two weeks leave” I say as I enter the kitchen and get greeted by my beautiful wife with a peck on the lips “That’s great mat, so have I for the time being but after that I’ve got some things I need to sort out in my ministry” she says before leaning in for another kiss “That’s ok in my books which is kind of ironic since Luna says she needs to see me after my leave finishes and help with the other ministry’s as well so I may see you up in cloudsdale at some point” “Fine by me, oh dinner’s almost ready go get the kids and sit down at the table” One wonderful dinner later all four of us are in the living room later playing around the with foals after I changed out of my armour into some more body friendly clothing and after one play session later all four of us are just sitting of the sofa watching a movie on my laptop, the foals are hypnotized to the screen while my and dash are simply snuggling up to each other in each other embrace sharing the occasional kiss when I get an idea, I get up quickly and pick up the camera from on top of the fireplace and sit back down “Everypony smile” I exclaim as I hold up the camera with one arm and take a photo of us all as a happy family “Happy hearths warming guys” I as we all eventually fall asleep in front of the crackling fire Flashback end 3rd POV As mat finished recalling the memory in his mind, he carefully folded up the photo before pulling out his wallet and placing the photo inside then replacing said wallet back into his pocket, now that he was sure that the floor was clear he made his way back down the hallway and down the stairs with his weapon still in hand “Upstairs clear” matrix spoke out loud “This floor’s clear too” said silver as he walked out the kitchen chewing on something whilst floating what appeared to be a can of…………beans to his mouth his a fork “Dude…….are you eating a f****** two hundred year old can of beans?” Silver stopped chewing to speak “yeah…………..what of it?” "That’s just plain f****** gross dude, if you get stomach poising, don’t come crying to me” “Yeah whatever” responded silver as he continued to eat the food “f****** retard, silver grab the kids where go into the basement I would feel much safer down there than in the house” “Alright I see you down there in a few minutes” as he walks off into the living room to rouse the kids from there quickly slumber Mat walks down the hallway to the back of the stairs where he opens a hidden panel revealing a terminal, he swiftly enters his password which opens the heavy metal disguised door inwards, he steps in flicking on the lights surprised the still work and walks down the stairs into the underground room that had a set of two bulkhead doors which held the armoury part of the basement whilst the part he was currently in has spare beds food and water, pretty much a home fallout shelter As he inspects the supplies they have in stock he hears silver along with the foals walking down the stairs and through the blast door at the bottom into the room “So you finally managed to get your fat a** down here then “Not so easy as you out it when you have two foals running around like mad ponies” “Point taken but they are ‘my’ mad ponies and by the way did you lock the front door?” "Yeah I did and I locked the door at the top of the stairs as well so are we gonna open the gun’s yet or what?” “no not yet, I wanna get some more shut eye first, we could all do with it, then tomorrow we crack that bitch open, sound good” “Yeah I guess you’re right, well see ya in the morning then” “You too silver I’ll wake you all up at around ten” Silver nodded in agreement before collapsing onto a mattress and falling asleep almost instantly, matrix lied down on the bed next him with his foals curling up next him while the brother and lil twist shared another bed and pretty soon they all drifted off into unconsciousness. hey guys RM here sorry it took so long for me to get the chapter out its just that lately I've been getting caught up with things getting distracted writers block yadda yadda yadda but anyway here's the next chapter and for anypony reading my other story i and going to get the next chapter out for that as well soon that's all for now and if ya spot any mistakes just tell me prereaders are all offline (like always but i cant blame them) RM laterz :)