//------------------------------// // A new home // Story: Fallout Equestria: Prepper // by Kippershy //------------------------------// Fallout Equestria: Prepper By Kippershy A new home “I take it you’re Opal?” To that, she nodded shyly, uncertain of how to respond. “Then why yes, you did hear your name. I was just complimenting what an absolutely magnificent job you’ve done with this place. The colours, the layout, the way the items are grouped. I don’t mean to sound rude, but I never knew that alicorns quite understood the concept of such beauty.” ‘Understood the concept of beauty?’ I couldn’t help but feel a little put out. How could we not understand the concept of beauty when we had each other to look at? How could we not understand what beauty was when we had experienced the absolute togetherness that was Unity? Scuffing her hoof on the floor, my darling Opal seemed to agree. Catching onto the offence he’d caused, the flamboyant stallion promptly apologised. “Oh, I didn’t mean it like that at all, I really am ever so sorry. I only mean that I’ve never come across an alicorn who seemed interested in the beauty around us. The ones I’ve seen previously were always so reserved and indignant towards others. I promise, I didn’t mean to insult you.” In her soft, sweet little voice, Opal spoke shyly. “Well I hope you can excuse me, but I really must get back to tending to the customers ready to pay.” With that, she disappeared in an instant, magic disguising her from sight. Despite that though, I knew exactly where she was thanks to her thoughts, quiet whispers announcing her presence to me. Halfway through letting out a small sigh, I felt the press of lips on the tip of my nose and smiled. My beautiful Opal was just too precious. “So, this might be nosy, but there’s something more than just a business partnership between you two, isn’t there?” The cute little mare next to me asked, an odd mix of a smile and the look of disappointment in a destroyed wish lingering in her eyes. If she had asked me earlier in our relationship, or if she had asked Opal, there would have undoubtedly been a floor scuffing to the point where there would be no foundation below. Now we had been together for this long, I no longer required courage to nod my head. “You’re particularly observant, aren’t you? Yes, I love her, and she loves me too. We first met each other during our time in Canterlot, and then we ran into one another again after the world we knew ended. She was the first of my sisters to truly believe in me, and the truest of them all as well. She’s the one who decided to stick around with me and see what we could achieve together.” “Wait, do you mean she’s one of the ones you just told me about?” Asked the little voice at my hooves, his eyes wide with joy. ~~I hope she’ll tell me more!~~ “That’s right.” I said with a smile, happy to hear he was so interested. “The blue alicorn from the other wing was Opal. While I loved all of my sisters in Unity, I didn’t see her as anything other than another member of our group at the time. It wasn’t until Unity came to it’s end that I saw her for the beautiful mare she truly is.” Next it was the mare’s turn to ask the next question. “So, at the end of Unity, whatever that means, were you just sitting next to each other, or is there a story behind meeting back up?” Rubbing my chin, I pondered over her question for a moment. “Honestly? The story of her joining back up with me isn’t much to tell. I had only been sitting right here at the time when she turned up. The much more interesting story is why she turned up here I suppose. Want to hear that instead?” As everypony sat down, it was clear their answer was a resounding ‘yes’. Revelling in the chance to share more of my story, I began. --- --- --- With my orders from the Goddess made clear, I had to find somewhere safe to begin stockpiling. There would be no point in even beginning to search for more supplies than I could carry on me if I couldn’t even put them somewhere safe. I knew that finding a new home would be a real challenge, but for the sake of all of my sisters, I had to do my best. Leaving the safety of Maripony, I saw the sun beginning to slowly lower, and chose that as my direction to travel in. If nothing else, I would at least maximise the amount of light I could use to further my search. Travelling alone was something so alien to me, that feeling of being so alone, so vulnerable out in the wider world. In all of my previous experiences, any time I had to travel anywhere, it was another two of my sisters. Flying without a wing by my side was shockingly lonely, even if Unity was still by my side within my mind. Before long, the hours shifted to days as I searched for somewhere new to begin. Nowhere close to Maripony was acceptable; hellhounds had made nests in the surrounding cave networks and would even dare to occasionally harass sisters who wondered too close, those who were outnumbered, those who were making themselves too vulnerable. No, close to home wasn’t safe, and it needed to be somewhere safe. Flying across the wasteland, it became apparent that most buildings were completely unsuitable. Crumbling walls, broken windows, missing rooves, destroyed doors, or simply being too small were the main reasons that I couldn’t even begin to consider most. For others, they were partially flooded as swamps took over portions of land. Time and time again, I’d figured I had found somewhere potentially worth calling a home, only to then find that it was booby trapped or had already become the residence of a group that had completely tarnished the building with blood, gore, and other unfortunate dealings. At first I thought that the best place to search for might be to find another cave system, but before long I found that they were an absolute no-go. So many times I thought I’d found a cave suitable for storage; large, sturdy beyond belief, protected from the elements – caves seemed like they would be the absolute perfect option at first. Maripony was built in the shell of a cave system after all; why not recreate home with our backup? Well, radspiders, bears, manticores, unbelievably large parasprite hives, and even one that had pre-war signage warning of Ursa Majors all made for extremely… persuasive reasons to give up on trying to find a suitable cave. Anything large enough to be usable had already been found and was in use by something that would make taking over the territory either take and keep more effort than it was worth, or impossible to take to begin with. --- --- --- “So that’s when you found this here?” The young colt asked, his voice breaking me out of my trance of storytelling and back to the world around us. “Shhh!” The mare scolded, making me realise just how keenly she had been sitting and listening to every word herself. “Let her tell the story! She’ll obviously get to it when she does, otherwise we wouldn’t be here right now.” Letting out a content sigh and a chuckle, this was an experience I had no choice but to cherish entirely. It was certainly a welcome change of pace. Pausing my story to take a deep breath, I looked all around me, taking in the majestic sight that had become home, our shop, ‘Prepper’s place’. My place indeed. I couldn’t help but smile and feel proud at knowing I’d made a positive mark on the wasteland, no matter how small. Of course the shop was still a safe haven for all of my sisters, but now it was so much more than its original intention. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes once more with a smile and continued the story. --- --- --- After caves proved to be too problematic, I stopped even bothering to search around for them. The new home would have to be… new. The next thing to cross off of my list was tower buildings. Most of the time they were simply unstable, damaged in the same ways that most other buildings are. The few that I had found which were visually intact on the exterior and presumably in good condition on the interior had been fortified by either gangs or turned into mock villages of innocent ponies. Of course, The Goddess’ need came above all else, but another voice in my head argued that fighting through gangs by myself would not only be risky, but also have the same potential risk that their friends could retaliate – or know to sneak in and steal from me while I was gone. No matter what, I’d need somewhere relatively unknown to safely hoard any items for my sisters sake. Giving up on these types of buildings continued to limit my choices, I had to think differently. So far I had been searching for buildings that seemed safe but also inconspicuous. My requirements weren’t necessarily to have masses of space as much as it was safety. Somewhere that wouldn’t require a lot of repairs, that could easily be passed up by wanderers, that wouldn’t draw in scavengers. I simply wanted somewhere secure from the elements, somewhere I could store enough supplies to act as a safehouse. I wasn’t trying to make a hub. After several weeks of continuous searching, scouring every ruined township and industrial complex, I couldn’t lie, my hopes of finding somewhere suitable were beginning to be dashed. I had found plenty of loot along my travels, made plenty of mental notes with the help of Unity and drawn maps to the most resource rich finds, but nowhere had been the golden goose I was searching for. A lot of potential homes just had one or two too many flaws to forgive. Still, for The Goddess and my sisters in Unity, I had to keep at it, no matter what. That was when I stumbled upon this beautiful place, a wonderful stone walled beacon of hope struggling to shine in the darkness. Whatever it was that pulled me in, I didn’t know at the time, but I’m glad it did because it was perfect. From a distance the building seemed too large, too inconspicuous. It was a supermarket, of course it would attract attention. My head was telling me that this would be too much to defend, there would be too many directions for intruders to come from – and yet I still found myself drawn to it. I just had to see the inside. Stepping up to the door, I saw that it wasn’t open, but nor did it seem locked. Pulling it to one side with my magic, I heard the bell chime. What seemed like a charming little touch quickly changed for the worse; it wasn’t a welcoming bell, it was a dinner bell – but this was something I was yet to find out. Stepping into the building was a spooky experience. The aisles were trashed, empty cans and packaging littered the floor. Shopping carts were scattered, some on their sides, others overturned entirely. Empty bags were all over the place and more than a couple of times I found bloodstains coupled with rotting corpses strewn across the floor. Losing my balance as I tripped up on one of the plastic bags, I flapped my wings in order to avoid hitting the floor face first. While I saved myself the embarrassment of tripping up, I also managed to kick so much dust into the air that the sunlight beaming through the windows behind me was practically blinding. All I could see was a haze of grey sparkles floating in the air, consuming every inch of space that they might fill. It was annoying, and it made breathing in a lot harder to want to do, because not even the Goddess knew exactly what had been sitting around for so long to leave so much dust, (and believe me, I asked.) Still, taking further steps into the building, it just felt like there was something calling me deeper into the belly of the beast. What I didn’t realise was it was the belly of the beast that called me in. Taking much more caution with my steps, I continued to move forward, wings extended to the point that I could feel the old, ruined shelves on each side. The building was proving to be sufficiently large, (as you know), and had a lot of potential showing to me already. The stone walls would mean that anything short of explosives would do no harm to the structure itself, unlike a wood framed building. The roof seemed to be intact, there was no obvious signs of leakage upon first inspection. Everything was looking wonderful. I still had a lot of area to uncover, and to discover why the bodies were in the condition they were, which was unnerving but there had been no other sign of trouble yet. Though as they say, when things look too good to be true, that’s when reality bites you in the ass. Scavenging through the shelves and cupboards, the noise of moving junk items around to find valuables must have been louder than I realised, as the only warning I had of danger was an awfully polite grunt as the sound of a heavy, meaty thud hit the floor behind me. Instinctively I put up my shield in preparation, expecting that perhaps a ghoul had been hidden inside the building. Jumping to the side just in case, I couldn’t have timed it better as a set of unbelievably powerful jaws ripped straight through my shield and clamped down onto the nothingness of where I had been only a second before. It was then that I screamed. Oh how I screamed. “OH GODDESS, WHAT IN EQUESTRIA IS THAT!?” Of course, instead of stopping to explain what it was, the radigator spun on the spot and once again tried to take a chunk of out me with its powerful maw. Jumping backwards and putting another shield up, it was obvious that this was a case of do or die; defeat the beast that was speedily waddling towards me or become its lunch. Powering up my horn, I launched an attack at the monster, though my eyes widened as the beam of energy simply refracted from its scaly hide as if I’d tried to shoot at it with empty words and guilt. Spinning on the spot, I did the only thing I possibly could; I ran. The sounds that followed told me that running was a fruitless endeavour. Making my way past countless overturned tables, shelves and carts, I hoped that some of those might slow down the beast, but the clanging sound remained behind me, barely getting any further in distance despite my best efforts. Whether it was the fact that I had to be careful in where I ran and the radigator seemed to simply barrel into everything without a care – or whether it was much faster than I had imagined it could possibly be, I didn’t know, but I didn’t have the time to find out either. With all of the kicked up dust getting into my eyes, making my way through the store at such speeds was proving to be extremely difficult. To my benefit, the front of the store was much clearer of debris than the back, but then as I reached the very front, I found that my luck had run dry – the door that I had come through had shut behind me, and opening it took enough effort the first time. Perking my ears to estimate the distance I had made on the beast, it wasn’t going to be enough to get the door open and get out. Turning around, the clanging of metal and muscular limbs hitting the floor told me I had no choice, I had to fight for my life. ‘Why did I have to come in here without a purple in support?’ I groaned as I dropped my gaze and powered up my horn once more, ready to- --- --- --- In that moment, a scream filled the air and ripped me from my story, the high pitched terror unnerving me even more than I had already been while recounting the battle. Getting up with haste, I sped to the source of the sound, ready for whatever might have been wrong. “PREPPER!” A voice called. “FLUFFY!” My heart dropped. Had somepony hurt my beautiful Fluffy?! Galloping over to where Fluffy’s corner was as fast as I could, a thousand thoughts of what could have happened to my beloved pet ran through my mind. Before I had reached the spot, the same pony that had screamed before now told me in a horrified voice: “Your pet Fluffy has been eaten by a radroach!”