Two hundred and thirty years have passed since the war, the Great war that lasted only a mere two hours, yet caused more destruction than every cataclysm and war in human history combined, leaving the world we called home little more than a wasteland of radiation and decay. Once great cities were reduced to rubble, and what few were left standing had become deathtraps filled with Raiders, Super Mutants, and the horrifyingly mutated creatures that survived the blasts.
The ghouls that call the Commonwealth home sometimes tell stories of the world before the war, how the world was so beautiful, how every day wasn’t a fight for survival, yet as I look out at what remained of Boston...the once great Cradle of Liberty...I still find myself doubting their words. I was hardly alone on the matter, for all of us grew up in the wasteland, where the most green we had ever seen was from when a glowing one came charging at us.
We had adapted though, humanity was rather stubborn in that regard, for we had slowly recovered from the war, and from what I read in the few history books that survived, went right back to doing what the human race does best, for even in a world ravaged by a Nuclear winter.
War never changes.
I remember hearing the General muttering those exact words while he watched the Institute go up in flames, and as I watched what remained of the Old World crumble before my eyes, I found myself agreeing with him.
We never saw the General again after that day. From what Preston told us, he left in the middle of the night, never responding to hails over the radio, and leaving nothing more than a note and a Pip-Boy.
To this day, only Preston knows what was in that note, not even Sturges was allowed the privilege to read the good Generals last words to the minutemen. The Pip-Boy though, well let’s just say Sturges had fun playing around with the thing for about a month before giving it off to the next guy, which just so happened to be Preston, but he refused and instead offered it to me for reasons I still don’t know, but I never questioned his decision.
Since the man in charge left us, things have been calming down a bit, what with the Brotherhood still running around and killing as many Super Mutants and Feral Ghouls as they could, but never even so much as looking in the direction of any Minutemen Settlements.
Still, even with the tin cans going full genocide on the freaks, our work was never done. Even with all of our defenses and soldiers, it still wasn’t enough.
We are constantly on our guard, constantly at war, and constantly tested on the battlefield. Some of us have had to go days without rest, constantly moving to respond to threats towards the settlements we created, and while we usually push them back...we are not always successful.
The ones in charge know that with how fast the Commonwealth is growing following the destruction of the Institute, it’s going to quickly get to the point where the army of ours is going collapse under the strain of protecting the few decent folk left in the wastes.
That’s why the Captains took any chance they could get to acquire better armor and weapons, sending small teams out into the wastes on scavenger missions. Some came back successful, usually carrying entire suitcases filled with ammo and weapons, and once even coming back with a complete set of power armor.
Others, we never heard from again.
I had prayed to whatever God may be up there that I didn’t end up as the latter, but after seeing the remains of a woman and child sitting together on a park bench, their arms still wrapped around each other while their empty sockets looked on in the direction of the Glowing Sea, I knew that no one was there to hear them.
“Makes you wonder huh?” I heard my partner ask, his decayed hand landing on my shoulder plate as he looked on with a sad smile on his face. “Wonder how things could have been...if not for the bombs.”
“It’s hard to imagine life before; after all, I’m not like you.” I sighed, looking over to the Ghoul standing at my side. “The wasteland is the only thing I know, never experienced anything else.”
“I think you would have enjoyed yourself.” He chuckled, moving past me and farther into the still unnamed settlement. “Granted, it wasn’t as exciting as the wastes, but at least you would have gotten to see Boston before it turned into a shithole.”
“I’ve seen a picture or two, so I kind of got an idea.”
“Please, no picture could ever do that city justice.” He snorted...somehow, before motioning for me to follow him, “Now come on, Sturges thinks he finally got that teleporter up and running.”
“You mean the one he’s been trying to figure out since the General up and disappeared on us?”
“The very same.”
That brought a grin to my face, the first one in a long time. “This I gotta see.”
Old Sturges never gave up on trying to figure out all the data that got downloaded on that holotape. Always trying everything he could to understand the inner working of the Institute and their technology.
Granted, he was making amazing progress, already drawing up plans for a whole number of inventions none of us could ever dream of, but were unable to build seeing as all the tech required to make them run was buried under the crater where the Institute once was. But no matter what he pulled from that tape, he always came back to the teleporter.
At first we didn’t think much of it; by all accounts, Sturges was an engineering genius compared to the rest of the Commonwealth, but all that knowledge is wasted without the right parts, which we all knew for a fact we didn’t have.
He never quit though, constantly shuffling through the salvage bags we brought back and taking them into his little workshop, not being seen again until after dark. We worried about him, sure, but none of us were about to force him to stop.
He was a free man, and the parts he was taking weren’t all that important. We had all the tools and supplies we needed, so as long as he wasn’t starting to take the weapons or armor, he could do whatever he wanted with them.
“So, last I heard, you’re still the only one crazy enough to volunteer for the first test.”
“You would be correct.” I answered, making the ghoul chuckle and fix the Fedora on his head.
“You got bigger balls than I do kid.”
“Last I heard, you don’t have balls anymore Bill.” This just got a louder laugh out of him before he punched me in the shoulder.
“Smartass.”
“You know you love me.”
“Frost!” both of us stopped and looked towards the center of town, seeing Sturges waving us down while he typed away at a terminal. “Come on man, time’s-a-wastin’.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming boss!” I shouted back, looking over to my friend with a small grin. “Guess its show time.”
Bill didn’t seem to share my attitude, if the small scowl on his face was any indication. “You sure about this kid, I’m sure Sturges would understand if you were having second thoughts.”
“I’m sure.” I answered with a nod, keeping my eyes locked on the machine that was supposed to be the teleporter. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
“You did not just ask that did you?” he groaned, “Now I know something’s going to go wrong.”
“Maybe, but the worst that could happen is I die, which could very well happen tomorrow whether I do this or not.” I replied, finally reaching the teleporter and turning to regard my friend. “Besides, I know for a fact that the General would have done the same thing.”
“Kid, yo-” I lifted a hand, making him go quiet before I set that hand on his shoulder.
“You’re not talking me out of this Bill; this is something I know I need to do. If this works, if we can really use this to teleport our troops from one settlement to another, we could make more of a difference than any of us could possibly imagine.”
I felt the ghoul’s eyes boor into my own, the two of us not moving for a good minute until his arms came around and pulled me into a hug.
“Alright man, if you really want to take this risk...I won’t stop you.” He sighed, breaking away from me and grabbing my forearm while I grabbed his. “But if anything goes wrong, and I never see you again, I want you to know you’ve been a good friend, better than any I had, even before the war.”
I nodded, releasing his arm before removing my dog-tags and tossing them in his direction. “Just in case.”
He nodded with a small grin; backing away from me and the machine, letting Sturges take his place.
“You ready for this man?” The engineer asked me, getting a nod from me before he led me towards the giant machine, which still looked like the same one we used to infiltrate the Institute.
“So, what are the odds Sparky?”
“Forty percent chance this works, forty five percent chance it doesn’t, and fifteen percent chance it kills every last one of us.” I blinked and looked towards the man with a raised brow. “I know, I don’t like those odds either, but hey, it worked on things that weren’t alive, so you should get there still in one piece.”
“Not instilling a whole lot of confidence there sir.”
“It’ll be fine, I’m sure.” He waved off, heading back to the terminal after I was on the pad, the reactor powering the machine starting up with the simple push of a button. “Now this is still a molecular de-stabilizer, try not to move around too much, wouldn’t want you to reassemble with your arm attached to your forehead.”
“Again, not a lot of confidence there sir.” He didn’t respond, just kept typing away on his terminal while the three spires surrounding me steadily got louder, electricity audibly crackling above me.
“Alright, she’s warmed up, everything looks good, acquiring the signal...got it!” Sturges shouted over the rumbling and whirring of the machinery. I looked over at Bill, his old colonial hat held over his chest while saluting me, I grinned back and softly nodded back. “Sending you off in three...two...one!”
My body instantly locked up, any and all motion now rendered impossible as the light slowly engulfed my form. I saw Sturges still typing away before he suddenly stopped dead, his head now turned towards me, but whatever he said was lost to me. That’s when I saw the console suddenly light up and a bright flash threw the man back. I didn’t even have time to process the sight, the light now rendering me blind until everything suddenly went dark, taking my consciousness along with it.
The first thing to register in my slowly awakening state was the feeling of soft warmth surrounding me on all sides, a stark contrast from the usual hard mattress and biting cold of a Boston winter. The second thing I noticed was a dull pain in my right eye, along with the strange feeling of something cool and wet running over my arm, strange because something about it didn’t feel quite right...almost like the feeling that the wetness lingered longer than it should have.
“...ake...up.” my ear twitched after a voice mumble; this freaked me out just a bit.
My ears shouldn’t twitch.
“The...hell” I grunted, pulling away from whatever was touching my arm and using said arm to try and rub my eyes, stopping dead after feeling something noticeably fuzzier than my arm should have been.
That’s when I noticed that, something didn’t feel quite right
“Good to see you finally returned to the land of the living.” I felt my ear twitch again, hearing the same voice from before, letting me know I was not alone.
“W...what?” I tried rubbing my eyes again, somewhat succeeding in my endeavor, before trying to open my eyes, only to be rendered blind once again by a bright light shining right in my eye.
“Careful, try not to overload that new eye of yours.” The woman, if the voice was any indication, told me softly, the cool and wet sensation returning afterwards, but this time running over my eyes.
“What’s...going on? Where am I” I asked the woman, letting my eyes ease open to try and get a read of my surroundings. The first thing I saw was white, the dirty white that usually covered the walls of the pre-war hospital rooms, along with a few burnt and tattered poster showing the anatomy of some strange creature that almost resembled a Radstag, but at the same time, not even coming close.
“Easy, don’t try moving quite yet.” The woman told me, pushing back on my shoulder after I tried getting up. I grunted and raised my arm to rub my right eye again, only to stop dead after seeing what was supposed to be my arm.
‘That’s...not quite right.’ I blinked and moved my arm around, seeing the black furred...hoof...thing, move in its place. I felt my mouth go dry as I followed my new appendage to where it connected to my body, only to see that the rest of me had changed as well. ‘Am I on another drug trip?’
“Are you okay?” I blinked again before shaking my head, which also didn’t feel quite right, and turning to the owner of the voice, only to freeze once more, blinking stupidly once again.
“...I think now is a good time to panic.” I replied, looking at the strange creature as it tilted its head, its face showing visible confusion.
“May I ask why?” Nope, can’t pretend it wasn’t the creature talking to me, meaning I was either hallucinating from a really bad drug trip, or something didn’t go quite right with the teleporter.
“...What the hell are you?” I mumbled, studying the strange furry creature before me. Its dark green pelt was unmarred from the usual cysts and patchwork fur that almost all animals of the commonwealth had, and the light brown hair on its head and neck were also full and tied in a small ponytail, a bit moved to cover the horn on her forehead.
The creature raised a brow, its dandelion eyes regarding me with what I could only guess was curiosity.
“I could ask you the same thing.” It...She, replied, studying me just as much as I was studying her. I looked back over my new body and gave her a sheepish grin.
“I’ll uh...I’ll have to get back with you on that one.”
She hummed before I saw her horn light up, along with a small clipboard moving about on its own, situating itself before her with a pen poised to write. I just stared at the floating piece of wood, feeling my still unopened right eye twitch before I did my best to calm my panicking mind.
‘Come on, keep it together, you faced down Deathclaws on your own without blinking, now is not the time to start panicking.’ I told myself, taking a few deep breaths before looking back at the creature again, seeing her still sitting there, watching me with a patient smile on her muzzle.
“You need a minute?”
“I need answers.” I replied, seeing her nod and the floating pen write something down on the still floating clipboard.
“Alright then, ask away.” I nodded and rested my head back on what I guessed was a mattress, my eye still locked on her.
“What are you?”
“A pony, a Unicorn mare if your want specifics.” Wasn’t really sure what a pony was, wondering why something was named after a hairstyle, or was it the other way around, wasn’t like there were that many history books left intact after the blast.
“Where am I?”
“An old repurposed hospital in Manehattan.”
“Don’t you mean Manhattan?” I received a headshake as an answer, which just confused me more. “Then where is ‘Manehattan’?”
“It’s in the Southeastern part of Equestria.”
“...What the hell is Equestria?” Now she just looked more confused than I was, which is a pretty difficult thing to be from my perspective. “Know what, never mind, it’s unimportant right now.”
I raised my...hoof...and rubbed my head, trying to assuage the pain coming from my eye.
“What the hell happened?” I had to ask myself. It was obvious something went wrong with the molecular destabilizer, and knowing we were working with tech we didn’t really understand, there was a whole number of things that could have gone wrong.
Still though, I don’t think any of us could have thought up an entire species change, even if I ended up experiencing it first hand after messing up while constructing a gas grenade for the general.
“I was actually hoping you could answer that for us.” I returned my attention to the pony, the clipboard no longer in sight as she jumped from her chair to stand at my bedside. “We found you with several lacerations along your side and one of your eyes popped out of your skull.”
“...What?”
“Frankly, it’s nothing short of a miracle that you’re still alive, what with the amount of blood you lost”.
“...What?” I asked again, receiving an eye roll before the pony mare’s horn lit up again and I felt something tugging at my right eyelid.
“Open your eye please; the cybernetics should be just about done calibrating.” She ordered, my eye slowly opening soon after, watching her look at the eye closer before nodding to herself and backing away before tossing me a mirror. “Here, I got other patients to deal with, your gears in the corner and we’ve already got the caps we need as payment from that pouch of yours, leave when you can stand on your own four legs.”
With that, she was gone, leaving me all alone in the hospital room while I just stared at the door, blinking stupidly for a good minute before shaking my head and letting out a small chuckle.
“She definitely acts like a wasteland doctor.” I mumbled before turning towards the mirror she had tossed me, reaching out a hoof and trying to grasp the metal, surprising myself when the mirror actually came with it.
‘Makes no sense, but just go with it.’ I thought to myself before situating the mirror in front of me, studying the face that shouldn’t have been mine, but moved along with me all the same.
The reflection stared back at me, one eye a bright fiery blue and the other a sea of black with a small ring of blue glowing around the center. The rest of me resembled the pony from a moment ago, but instead of dark green, my pelt was covered in a coat of dark grey fur and the hair on my head was an ash gray. I also lacked the horn she had, and instead sported a set of leathery wings that reminded me of bat wings.
“Am I supposed to be some kind of bat version of a pony?” I asked myself, trying to move my wings, the appendages popping out from my sides after I found the muscle that controlled the things, giving them a few unsteady flaps before letting them rest back at my sides. I stared at the wings for another moment before shaking my head and pushing myself from the bed, falling flat on my side after failing to realize I could probably no longer stand on two legs.
‘Let’s see if I can remember how to do this.’
Thankfully, I had a bit of practice walking on all fours after a few drug trips, the muscle memory seeming to stick with you even if you weren’t actually doing anything in the first place.
Day Tripper is one of hell of a drug when combined with Jet.
It wasn’t all that hard to get my hooves under me, granted I wouldn’t be galloping anytime soon, but it’s better than nothing.
True to her word, my gear was in the room with me, but all of it looked a bit different, as in they were all much smaller than before. I decided to question it later, choosing to just slip into my armored wet-suit and strapping on the combat armor plates and clicking my pip-boy back on my arm, or I guess my leg now, all of which was surprisingly easy.
‘I wonder.’ I unfurled the wings again and gave them a few more flaps, getting a feel for them before pushing myself back onto my two hind legs, wobbling a bit before I subconsciously flapped my wings for a counterbalance.
'So far so good' I thought, next was to grab the Combat rifle and try and pull back on the receiver, hearing the unloaded rifle give a satisfying click before jamming the stock in my shoulder and aiming down the sites, moving my new hoof towards the trigger and hearing another click, meaning the rifle would have fired if it had been loaded.
‘None of this makes any sense, but at the same time, when does anything ever do?'
“Careful with that.” I heard the mare tell me, the pony returning to the room and looking at my form, raising a brow as she studied my wings before shrugging and tossing a pouch that looked a lot like my cap bag my way, the bag smacking me in the face and damn near knocking me out again. “Forgot to give you your caps back.”
“...Ow” I groaned, rubbing my face while fixing the pony with a glare. She chuckled and stepped into the room, watching me with nothing less than sadistic amusement. “Something tells me your one of those doctors that enjoys the suffering more than the helping.”
“I will neither confirm nor deny that statement.” She replied with a grin, watching me as I got back up on my four legs and grab my .44 pistol, and strap it into its holster, which was now on my left leg. “But contrary to what you may think, I’m not here to watch you suffer.”
“Then why are you here?” I asked after jamming a magazine into my combat rifle, almost falling on my face in the process.
This was gonna take some practice.
“To make sure you get to the door as soon as possible. No offense to you, but we kind of need these rooms for other ponies after the last raider attack.” She answered, making my ears perk up and my brow raise.
“Raiders?”
“Yep, case you hadn’t noticed, wastelands kind of filled with them.”
So I was still in the wasteland, or at the very least a wasteland...not sure if that should have been comforting or not.
“You said I was in Equestria right?” I asked before bringing up my Pip-Boy map.
“You are in Equestria, yes.” She answered with a nod, the completely alien features on the map solidifying her claim. This means that the teleporter wasn’t a total failure, but first I needed to see where it threw me out at.
“Great.” I sighed, looking at the data section and turning to the quest section, seeing only one single objective.
Figure out where the hell you are.
‘Couldn’t have said it better myself.’