//------------------------------//
// ...At least what's left of it. 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: From One Wasteland to Another 
// by Dapper_Dan 
//------------------------------//

“Go down the hall, take a left, and you’ll see the diner. If you’re not hungry, exits right next to it, don’t let the door smack you in the plot on your way out.”  Was the last thing I heard the pony tell me before being summarily ejected from the hospital room and another took my place, the door shut tight while I just stared at it in mild irritation. 

“Paid you damn near four thousand caps, least I could get was another day of sleep.” I grumbled while looking into my cap bag, counting out the last thousand left in it with disdain. I had been saving up those things since I started working with the Minutemen, meaning that almost two years of scavenging was gone in literally an instant, or at least it felt that way.

I couldn’t worry about that right now though, right now I needed answers, and the one place you always find them was at the bar, making the diner my next destination.

And so, I started my unsteady walk towards the diner, passing room after room, each and every one closed off and a few hiding the sources of screaming and pain, making my ears fold back and my new tail flick on its own. 

Seems my phobia of hospitals was starting to kick in, giving me plenty of motivation to hurry along down the hall and taking the first left I could find, trying to get as far from the smell of blood and death as I could, eventually ending up in a large circular room that constituted as the hospital lobby, stopping dead after seeing what lied past the doorway.

Dozens more of the strange pony creatures lined the walls of the room, each one varying in color from green to red and blue, a few damn near giving me a headache just from looking at them. Most were clad in dirty rags or armor, along with the occasional suit, but almost all of their coats were stained crimson with blood, some dried, some still fresh. The metallic smell in the air nearly made me choke, the taste of copper heavy on my tongue, as if I could actually tasted the blood in the air.

I heard the crying of children in the background while I looked out at the crowd, most of them looking dead to the world, some missing limbs, some looking ahead with a thousand yard stare, and others doing their best to comfort what were probably their friends or family.

“Dear God.” I muttered, slowly walking into the room and doing my best not to gag, my now obviously much more sensitive nose amplifying the scent of blood and misery that permeated the room. Almost none of the ponies so much as glanced my way, their eyes still staring straight ahead while the ones who did acknowledge my existence sent me looks varying from mild interest to outright hostility.

I just kept moving, doing my best not to get in anyone’s way, slipping past ponies clad in nurse’s scrubs and others covered from head to hoof in patchwork armor, almost looking like the security back in Diamond City. 

‘All of this from one Raider attack?’ I asked myself, passing another pony that was missing the horn that I saw on the Unicorn doctor, but I guessed it was natural since it didn’t look wounded in any way, but its eyes told a different story. ‘PTSD is already setting in.’

In truth, I felt for each and every one of these beings, having seen enough post-raider attacks to know how hard it can be afterwards. I was much the same way after my first fight, having seen the true horror of a creature that called itself a Raider.

I say creature, because there was no way they were human anymore...no human could be that cruel.

But just because I felt sympathy for them, didn’t mean I was immune to desensitization. I had seen hundreds of raider attacks in my time in the Commonwealth, having fought them off dozens of times, and saw my friends and comrades die too many of those times. Eventually you learn to ignore the pain in your heart, treating everyone as nothing more than a statistic.

Only way most of us could cope sometimes.

My ear twitched again, the subtle sounds of music cutting through the cries of the injured, making me look up to see a neon sign with the word diner glowing a bright red, sitting right above a still intact glass door. I wasted no time getting to it, eager to get out of the depressing atmosphere of a post-battle hospital.

I gently pushed the door open, the soft sounds of classical music soothing my mind and the smell of cooked meat hanging in the air. It was a cozy little place, reminding me much of the diners still littering the wasteland, at least those that weren’t turned into graves of the ones before and after the war.

The soft chatter of the ponies surrounded me as I walked into the diner, my hooves clip-clopping on the checkered tile floor as I made my way towards the counter and hopping onto one of the stools, nearly missing my mark and face-planting into the counter.

The atmosphere of the eatery was quite different from the one outside that door, a distinct feeling of sadness in the air, but at the same time, and undercurrent of happiness that could only come from a full belly. I have no doubt at least half of the ponies in this room helped defend from the raiders, almost all sporting some kind of injury, whether it was a simple bandage, or a sling holding broken limbs in place. They weren’t anything like the folks outside though, meaning they were probably still rookies that got really lucky, or veterans who were doing their best to cope.

I tapped a hoof on the counter, catching the attention of the Unicorn pony behind the counter, the brown coated pony making its way towards me after looking me over for a moment.

“The Tartarus you supposed to be, a mutant Pegasus?” the pony asked, their voice identifying them as a male of the species. I just tilted my head, wondering what a Pegasus was supposed to be.

“The Hell’s a Pegasus?” I replied, making him look at me like I was the idiot.

“...I’m gonna pretend I didn’t just hear you ask that.” He muttered before his horn glowed and a pencil floated out from behind him, followed by a simple piece of paper. I narrowed my eyes as I looked at his horn, finally connecting the dots and figuring out what was making the items float, now I only had to figure out the how. “I got food if you got the caps, what do ya’ want.”

“Didn’t come here to eat.” He started at me for a moment before rolling his eyes and making the items disappear below the counter.

“Then why are you in my diner?”

“Information.” I answered, watching his ear flick as he regarded me with a brow raised.

“What kind of information?”

“The kind that will help me figure out where I am and what I’m dealing with.” His ears now stood at attention, his horn lighting again and a stool from behind the counter moved closer, letting him jump onto the chair and rest his hooves on the counter.

“Alright, it’s slow right now, so ask your questions.” I nodded and looked at my Pip-Boy, turning to the notes sections and preparing the touch screen, which surprisingly still worked with hooves.

“First question, how are you making all those objects move? I saw your horn light up when they were moving, meaning you and others of your species contain some form of telekinesis, is this correct?” I watched him get another one of those ‘is this guy for real’ looks before he just sighed and lit his horn again, bringing the pencil back out from under the counter. 

“I have no idea what this teleki-watzit is, but this is simple levitation magic, simple as that.”

‘You just basically told me magic exists, there’s nothing simple about that.’ I thought, choosing to just go along with it before I start questioning things.

“Second Question, where exactly am I? I know the mare from before told me I was in a city called Manehattan, which is apparently located in Equestria, is this correct?”

He gave me a nod.

“Alright then, where exactly is Equestria?”

“Couldn’t tell you, never seen a globe so I probably know about as much as you do” He shrugged. I hummed and put away the Pip-Boy, seeing the pony looking at the device with mild curiosity before snorting and moving over towards another pony after hearing another tap on the counter, leaving me alone at the bar while the sounds of conversation began petering out. I paid that no mind though; I was far too busy trying to get over the fact that I had actually found myself in, what was likely, a place far outside the area of the Commonwealth. 

Theoretically, that shouldn’t have been possible with the power supply the transporter currently had, the single fusion reactor barely being enough to get you to the next settlement, let alone to another state.

I was pretty sure this place wasn’t anywhere in the states though, not like you can hide the fact that non-human creatures evolved or mutated to talk and hold weapons, pretty sure I would have heard about that one.

This means that the transporter either got a massive power surge that caused it to go into overdrive and teleport me to a region far outside any of the known territories, or it did something that, according to the Institute itself, could not and would not happen. Compounded by the fact that both my weapons and armor seem to have shrunk down to fit my new form, which was a whole new issue in and of itself, shifting this whole thing into the realm of scientific impossibility.

Frankly, it was giving me a headache just thinking about it.

Thankfully I hadn’t entered a full blown panic attack yet, the fact I still had my gear was a major factor. Another was the fact I wasn’t completely sure if any of this was even real and not another one of my drug induced hallucinations.

I’m pretty sure I’ll figure out the answer to the latter soon though, but by then I’ll hopefully be calm enough to avoid the worst of it.

Right now though, I couldn’t afford to think on it too much, not with the amount of problems I already have on my plate.

‘One thing at a time’ I told myself, just letting my mind relax and listening to the soft music in the air, 

“What the Tartarus are you doing here featherbrain?” Well that peaceful moment left in a hurry.

I snapped an eye open, looking at the cook while he glared at something behind me, prompting me to look back as well to see another pony standing in the doorway with a glare of their own being directed back at the pony behind the counter.

“I’m not Enclave and I’ve got caps, that gives me just as much a right to be here as you.” The male answered, a pair of wings flared on his sides, an intimidation tactic if I’ve ever seen one. The Unicorn snorted, but didn’t bother responding, simply walking through a door behind the bar and disappearing from the room.

Conversations soon died out as each of the ponies glared at the winged pony, the male paying no attention to the stares as he walked past them and leap onto the stool next to mine, giving me a quick glance before he relaxed with his head on the counter.

I tilted my head curiously, letting my eyes trail down his grey coated coated form, stopping to study the pair of feathery wings at his sides.

‘This must be a Pegasus’ I deduced, kind of seeing why the Unicorn would have thought I was one of them that just so happened to have mutated. After all, it wasn’t all that far from a human becoming a ghoul, albeit the final outcome was a damn sight less ugly.

“You enjoying the view?” I heard the Pegasus ask me, making my ears twitch as my eyes trailed back up to meet the deep green of his own, one partially obscured by his pale blue mane. He didn’t seem all that upset about my staring, his own eyes looking me over and studying my own wings about as much as I was studying his.

“Apologies, I’ve never seen a member of your species” 

“What, never seen a Pegasus stallion?” he questioned. I tilted my head again, running the word stallion though my head, finally just glad to know what the males of the species were called.

“I’ve never seen a pony before till today, not exactly from this neck of the wastes.” This made his ears twitch as his head raised, his eyes still resting squarely on me. 

“Well then let me by the first to say, welcome to Equestria...or at least what’s left of it.” He finished his greeting, the ending coming out as barely a whisper before he sighed and offered a hoof. “Names Swift Silver.”

“Frost” I replied, meeting his hoof with a soft clack, hearing a few whispers behind me after the act. He grinned before looking towards the door behind the counter, then back at me before pulling two bottles from a pouch on his side.

“Here, consider it your welcoming gift.” He said before placing them both on the counter and sliding one of them my way. I regarded the bottle curiously, the container looking quite similar to a Nuka-Cola bottle, but the words Sparkle-Cola were wrote on the label. I snorted at the similarity, not really paying it much mind, what with all the other insane crap that I’ve been dealing with today.

“Thanks” I said with a nod, popping off the top with a hoof before grabbing it with my new wierd telepathic hoof fingers and holding it towards him. “Cheers.”

And with that, I had my very first sip of Sparkle-Cola.

It tasted like shit.

Still drank it though, after all the shit I’ve put in my body over the years, a bit of carrot flavored soda wouldn’t kill me.

“So, what’s your story?” Swift asked me after I finished about a quarter of the bottle and placed it back on the bar.

“My story?” I asked, making the Pegasus nod with a grin.

“Yeah, your story” he repeated and pointed at me with a hoof. “You’re a species I’ve never encountered before, and I’ve never seen armor like that in Equestria.”

“Probably because I’m not from Equestria.” I answered with a shrug before taking my bottle cap from the counter and glancing at it briefly before pocketing it, the stallion raising no qualms with me taking something that was essentially his.

“Then where are you from?”

“Ever heard of the Commonwealth?” I got a headshake, “America?” Another negative.

I sighed and rested my chin on the bar, feeling my ears pin to the back of my head on their own. 

That was the answer I was dreading, letting me know just how screwed I was. Any person raised in the wastes, outside of the tribes still wandering around, at least knew what country they were still living in, what with the amount of American propaganda that was still littering the ruins of the post-nuclear world.

This either meant I was somehow transported to either another country, which I repeat, was theoretically impossible, or I had entered a whole new realm of impossibility to the point where it went beyond the realms of scientific impossibility and into something unfathomably  ridiculous.

Suddenly, that drug theory was starting to make a lot more sense.

“Are you okay?” 

“Been better.” I grunted, lifting my head and giving it a small shake before taking another sip of the carrot drink. “Just getting over the fact I might be horribly lost.”

Swift gave an understanding nod before knocking back his drink as well, chugging the thing down and letting out a pleased whinny after finishing it off, making me suppress a chuckle.

“Been there before, back when I was just a little colt,” I filed that word away for later. “Somehow managed to sneak my way out of New Appleloosa back when I was still young and stupid, can’t remember how far I got, but I do know that I ended up catching the eye of a Bloodwing. Almost lost my life if my mom hadn’t managed to track me down and practically beat the thing to death with her own two hooves.”

“It sounds like she’s quite the gal.” I had no idea what a Bloodwing was, but if it was anything like the creatures back home, then I definitely wouldn’t want to mess with her.

“That she is.” He agreed, a fond smile forming on his muzzle. “What about you, you got any stories to tell.”

I hummed and let my eyes drift shut, multiple memories running through my head.

“Yeah, I think I got one.” I nodded, making his ears perk and his smile turn into a grin.

“It was back when I was just starting out my admittedly short career as a scavenger, having finally saved up enough caps to buy a gun and some basic armor. Now for reference, I had just left my home of Diamond City, meaning I was still naïve and stupid, I thought I could take on the world.

I couldn’t help but chuckle and look over at Swift with a grin. “The Wasteland knocked that idea out of my head real fucking quick.”

“Armed with nothing more than leather armor and a 10mm pistol, I strolled on over to the police rationing site a stone’s throw away, thinking that there might have been some good loot, instead I found a small horde of feral ghouls. Bastards would have torn me apart if it weren’t for Preston.”

“Preston?” 

“Unofficial leader of the Minutemen at the time, a small civilian founded military force that does its level best to try and protect everyone in the Commonwealth. I joined up with them soon after that, figuring out there was no way I would have survived on my own without someone watching my back. Man taught me everything he knew about surviving in the wasteland, only asking that I do what he told me to, not once asking me to do anything unreasonable or immoral.”

“So you went from being a scavenger to a soldier, quite the step up if you ask me.”

“You would have been wrong.” I don’t regret my decision, but as a scavenger, I probably wouldn’t have racked up as high of a kill count. I’d also most likely be dead, but after seeing some of the shit I have, most would have probably preferred to be. 

“Can’t be any worse than being a merc like me.” Before either of us realized it, there was a gun right between his eyes, making the stallion lock up in either shock or fear. “Not that kind of mercenary!”

I held the gun there for moment, fighting my every instinct not to pull the trigger, before finally forcing my arm back down, hearing him release the breath he was holding.

“Sorry, force of habit, never had the best relationships with mercenaries.” I apologized while securing the .44 in its holster.

“Its fine, after all this time, I’m pretty much used to it.” He shrugged before placing a hoof on his chest to ease his probably racing heart. “If I had a cap for every time something similar happened, I would be in a position for it to happen again.”

I let out a sigh of relief, glad he wasn’t taking it too personally. Only been here for about half a day, didn’t need to be making enemies yet.

“Oy, the Tartarus you two still doing here, diners closed!” both of us turned towards the cook from before, the stallion fixing us a glare as we noticed the lack of conversations was no longer the fault of the Pegasus, but because the utter lack of ponies at the tables. 

“Shit, how long were we talking?” Swift muttered, prompting me to look at my Pip-Boy, seeing that it was still mid-day, much to my surprise.

‘Who the hell closes a restaurant at two in the afternoon?’ 

“Too damn long, now get out, I’m going home.” He ordered, making the Pegasus send him an icy glare while I rolled my eyes before nudging the Pegasus with a hoof.

“Come on, we can talk outside, it’ll be nice to see the sun shine again.” Those words made the Unicorn send an ever more heated glare at Swift while he simply stared at me in disbelief.

“You...are you serious?” he asked me, seeming shocked for some odd reason.

“Yes, is that an issue?” I tilted my head, curious of the stallion’s sudden mood shift.

“Good luck seeing anything besides clouds, case you hadn’t noticed, the winged freaks closed up the cloud layer a long time ago.” The cook growled, making me glance between the pair before I silently leapt from the stool and made a beeline for the door.

“This shit I gotta see.”