Fallout Equestria: Souls

by JustMoth

Act 1 - Part 2 : It's magic

“Time to wake up Rock.”

“Zzzz…”

Hoof sighed and walked closer to the sleeping mare.

“Come on and get up. I let you sleep in, but we need to get moving.” The stallion called louder.

Liar. You were sleeping too up until a half hour ago. I had to keep watch, and fat lot of good I would be if some desert nasty came by.

“Up and at ‘em stable filly!” Hoof yelled by her ear as he shook her shoulder with his hoof.

Flower’s eyes instantly shot open at the touch, and she let out a panicked scream as she scrambled backwards away from the hoof.

“Don’t touch me!” she yelled, clutching her duster close around her as she huddled against the far cave wall, eyes now tightly closed.

Oh no…

There are several reasons why a mare would react to being touched like that… and all of them are very bad…

The same thought must have occurred to Hoof, since he took a step back and spoke in a softer tone.

“You’re safe. Nopony is going to hurt you. “

Flower then opened her eyes again and her whole body relaxed. Looking around the cave she blinked a couple time in confusion before focusing on the unicorn stallion.

“Oh, hi Second!” she said with a smile, as if nothing happened, then she let out a shiver. “It’s cold!”

“Uh, yeah… it’s a bit past midnight, all of the heat has left the desert.” Hoof replied hesitantly, clearly unsure what to make of this sudden mood swing.  “It’s warmer by the fire.” He added, gesturing to the small portable camping stove that he had set up before trying to wake her. The stove’s magically powered flames were the only source of light, and heat, in the cave.

“Ooh, pretty!” Flower cooed as she cantered over to the flickering pink fire. She sat herself down a short distance away and extended her fore hooves to warm them up.

“So, are you feeling better?” Hoof asked as he walked around to the opposite side of the stove.

“Lots!” Flower beamed with a nod of her head. “Not so wobie and head hurty anymore.”

“Good to hear. After we have something to eat we’ll be heading out.” The dark olive unicorn rummaged through his saddle bags and then floated out a tin on canned apples. Pulling the pull-tab top off with his magic, he floated it over to the mare before searching again in the bags. “At first I wondered about that duster of yours, but it’s going to keep you warmer than I’ll be until the sun comes up again.”

Hoof then looked back up to the mare, probably to see why she hadn’t taken the can from him. The reason was that she was currently staring with a wide-eyed terrified look on her face. Even her coat was a paler shade of yellow.

“What’s wrong Rock?” Hoof asked nervously.

Barely moving, Flower whispered out of the side of her mouth. “A g… gh… gh… ghost…”

What?!

Could she see me? I couldn’t even see myself. Or did she show how feel my presence?

“What? Where?” Hoof looked around the cave confused.

I’m right here! Well, all around you, sort of, I guess.

The mare slowly raised a shaking hoof up, and pointed right in front of her.

Hoof followed with his eyes to where Flower was pointing to. “That’s a can of apples.” He said flatly.

“But…but it’s glowing! And… and floating on its own!” She gasped, not taking her eyes off the terrifying tin.

“What? It’s not floating on its own, I’m doing that.” The unicorn said rolling his eyes.

Flower tore her eyes away from the tin and looked incredulously at the stallion. “How can you move things without touching them?”

“With magic of course. What do you think this is for?” Second said, tapping his glowing horn with his hoof.

“Oh, I thought that was… I mean that you were also a… umm, never mind.” Flower muttered awkwardly.

Hoof thought for a moment, then his eyes widened in realization. “You’ve never seen a unicorn before?”

“A what?”

“A kind of pony that has a horn and can do magic.”

“Not that I can remember, but then I can’t remember much of anything. Yet, it doesn’t look normal.” Flower then quickly covered her mouth. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to say you’re not normal or a freak or anything! It’s just that when I think of a pony I don’t think of them having one of …” she waved a hoof in the direction of his horn. “…those.”

Second let out a chuckle at the mare’s embarrassment. “Interesting. Perhaps your stable was filled with only earth ponies…” After a moment of being lost in thought, he quickly looked back to Flower. “Wait a moment! You’ve seen me use magic several times before to give you water and you never said anything about it.”

Flower had a sudden look of realization. “That was you?”

“Who else did you think it was?” The stallion asked incredulously.

The yellow mare turned bright red with embarrassment (well, more an orange) and mumbled something while looking away.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Hoof tilted an ear towards her.

Flower mumbled something again, slightly louder.

“Didn’t quite catch that…”

“I thought it was water fairies.” She finally said loud enough to hear. “You know, little magical sprites that help travelers in need?”

Second put a hoof to his mouth, trying to stifle a laugh. I would have too if I still had either.

“Give me a break!” Flower said, stamping her hoof and pouting. “I was severely dehydrated and had already nearly died twice. You can’t blame me if my reasoning was a little off.”

“But you just thought that tin of apples was haunted.” Hoof quipped.

Flower blushed embarrassed. “Yeah, well , thinking it was a ghost is just as reasonable as saying it was ‘magic’.” She said the last word making hoof-quotes in the air.

The unicorn station face hoofed. “But magic IS real!”

“And so are ghosts. You just haven’t met any yet.” Flower was clearly trying to win this silly argument to save some face. Although, given my current situation I would have to side with her. “Just like I didn’t know magic is real until I met a unihorn.”

“Unicorn.” Hoof corrected.

“Whatever.”

“Hold on a second.” Hoof said, raising a… hoof. His name is going to be awkward… “How is it that you know about ghosts and sprites, but can’t even remember your own stable number?”

“I don’t know.” She said with a shrug. “It’s like I can remember things but not stuff. I know how to read and write, but not when I learned it. What is my stable number?”

“I don’t know. I never got to see the door. When I found you, you were already out of the cave that I presume lead to your stable. It should be printed on the sleeve of your stable jumpsuit. “

“Oh, so that’s what that meant!” Flower said in realization.

“What did you think it was?” Second rolled his eyes. “No, don’t tell me. It would just be something silly. Like that you were X number in a series of clones and everpony back in the stable were identical to you.

A dark, sad look crossed the yellow mare’s face. “I don’t think I would have to leave if that was the case.” She mumbled to herself.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” Flower said and then busied herself with trying to roll up one of the sleeves of her duster.

“Are you ever going to take that thing off?” Hoof said with a sigh.

“Not any more…” Flower said under her breath, sounding disappointed. I don’t think Hoof even heard her.  “Ah there!” She said, her normally chipper tone suddenly returning. “Stable 98!” She beamed looking down at her foreleg, having finally rolled the duster sleeve high enough to see the jumpsuit number.

“86. You’re looking at it the wrong way up.” Second said, shaking his head. “Well, at least that’s one part of the mystery solved.”

Flower stared back at him blankly. “What mystery?”

“Why, who you are of course. Don’t you want to get your memory back?” The stallion said, sounding a little confused.

“I’m me.” Flower replied matter-of-factly. “I don’t really care about getting my memory back.”

“What?” Second sounded stunned. “You’re not even curious about your past?”

“If it was good, then I can’t miss what I don’t know of. It was bad, then I’m better off not remembering.”

“That’s a… rather philosophical way of looking at things.”

Yeah, and also wrong. It’s never a good thing to lose one’s memories, no matter how bad… Wait. She said ‘it was bad’ not ‘if it was bad’. Did she just misspeak, or did this relate to her reaction to being touched…

An awkward silence filled the cave, only broken by the quiet roar of the magical pink fire.

“Well,” Second spoke up suddenly. “You should eat your ‘haunted’ apples, we’ll be moving out soon.”

Flower stuck her tongue out at the stallion over the little jab, but then smiled and sat down to eat.

This was an interesting couple of ponies…

I take it back.

These are still two incredibly boring ponies!

It’s like they are incapable of walking and having a conversation at the same time. Maybe they were too busy thinking about the rather odd events from breakfast.  Must be unsettling to suddenly find out that magic is real, or that your carefree traveling companion has a traumatic past that she doesn’t want to remember again.

Or, more likely, they are just lousy conversationalists.

It wasn’t until late morning that Hoof finally said something.

“It’s getting close to noon, are you picking up any landmarks on your E.F.S? We’ll need to find a place to rest.”

Flower just looked back at him confused. “My what?”

“Your Eyes Forwards Sparkle. The navigation system of your Pip-Buck?” Hoof then rolled his eyes at her blank stare. “You can’t remember the features of your Pip-Buck do you?”

“Umm, I know it has an alarm, and can keep notes…”

Second sighed and shook his head. “It does a whole lot more than that from what I’ve read. Let me take a look.”

A blue-gray magic field surrounded Flower’s left foreleg and held it up for the unicorn to examine. He seemed to be taking care not to actually touch her, and keeping as much distance as he could while still being able to read the screen.

“Ooh, that is so freaky!” Flower cooed while looking at her limb moving on its own.

“It’s just telekinesis. Now pay attention.” Hoof then began clicking and scrolling through the various options. “The DATA button brings up maps, your to do list, notes, and the radio.”

“So we can listen to music with this?” The yellow mare’s face brightened.

“If you can find a signal, but other than getting close enough to one of the occasional short-range broadcaster, there’s nothing to pick up. Well… except the sprite bot channel. “ Second added with a shiver of revulsion.  “But that loop gets very old very fast. Just make sure I’m not around if you decide to listen to it.”

“Oh.” Flower’s smile fell. “What about adding more notes to it?”

“You could only upload notes that were typed up on a terminal, this model doesn't seem to have any way of imputing sound or text directly.”

“I guess I’ll stick to my notepad then...” Flower mumbled under her breath.

Hoof didn’t even seem to notice she said anything, his attention had already returned to the hoof mounted computer. “The ITEMS button is self-explanatory, it manages all the stuff in your bags and pockets, and gives you information on them like condition, name, and value.”

Flower began to open her mouth with a confused look.

“Don’t ask me how it does all that.” Hoof said cutting her off. “The magic involved is so complex that I doubt there is a pony alive who really understands it.”

The remaining button was then pushed with the unicorn’s magic. “The STATS button lists the status of both you and the Pip-Buck. Oh good, it’s already at the settings menu. I’ll just back out of the alarm settings and…” The glow intensified around the various dials and switches on the device as the menus rapidly changed. “There! Your E.F.S. should be on now.”

“What exactly is it… Oh neat!” Flower exclaimed. “There’s a bunch of numbers and stuff floating in front of me.” The mare reached out into the air in front of her with her Pip-Bucked hoof.

“There should be some kind of compass in your view. Try turning your head and see if any marks show up”

Flower turned her head experimentally. “Wow… They move with me, and there’s a little thing that spins as I turn! A little triangle pops up on it when I face that way...” She pointed back the way they came, then turned back around to face just off from the direction they were going in. “And a hollow triangle that way.”

“The first one is the cave we spent the night in. The other must be a new location. Let’s hope it’s some kind of shelter.”

“There’s just one problem.” Flower said hesitantly.

“Uh oh.  What is it?”

“I really don’t like orange. Can you make these things blue?” Flower asked in full seriousness.

Second face hoofed. “Yeah, I think so…” grabbing her hoof with his magic again, more switches were pressed. “…how’s that?”

“Ah perfect!  This is a really pretty blue!”

“Well, while I’m at it, I’ll check your S.A.T.S. settings…” More magical glowing and the screen flipped through more text and numbers. He was pretty good figuring that thing out. I’m normally all hooves when it comes to anything technical. Suddenly he stopped and looked at the screen in confusion.

“S.A.T.S. functionality disabled. Please contact your Stable Security Manager for authorization?!” Hoof read off the screen with a frustrated voice. “One of the most useful features of the Pip-Buck and it’s disabled?”

“What should it do?” Flower asked.

“It’s an advanced spell that lets you target exactly where you want to hit an opponent with any weapon, even giving the odds of success.”

“Why would ponies living in a Stable need that?”

“Because…” Hoof thought for a moment. “I guess you’re right. It does make sense that it’s disabled for everypony except security.” He finished with a shrug. “Well then, the last feature of use would be your status menu. It has information like your name, current health, a little pictogram of your current condition, radiation…”

Flower suddenly put her other hoof over the Pip-Buck screen and tried to pull it away the unicorn’s magic before the menu could even change. Hoof was so stunned that his magic hold evaporated.

“That kind of information is private!” Flower said defensively, holding the Pip-Buck to her chest. “You shouldn’t look without permission.”

“Ok…” The stallion said slowly, and then shook his head with a sigh. “Well, let’s get moving to that location on the E.F.S., it was this way right?”

The mare looked in the direction that Hoof was pointing to and her smile suddenly returned. “Yup! Follow me!” She then trotted off in that direction.

The location turned out to be an old prewar shelter. It was built underground, somewhat like a personal Stable, with the entrance being a small pony-hole cover that was partly covered in dirt.  The only indication from the outside that it was even there was the bleached pony skeleton several meters away from the entrance.

“Ahhh, it’s so much cooler down here!” Flower exclaimed while standing in the shelter’s well lit antechamber and shook the sweat out of her puffy mane.

“The power reactor still seems to be functioning, and good thing we didn’t have to move that ourselves.” Hoof said indicating the massive steel door which lead into the rest of the shelter. “Now we just have to make sure nothing aggressive is living here.”

“How do we do that?” Flower said as she pressed her side against the cool steel of the door and sighed contentedly.

“They should show up as red marks on your E.F.S., around the compass I think.”

“Oh, so that’s what that meant!” The yellow mare smiled.

Hoof stopped in his tracks. “What?”

“There’s a red box on the spinny thing, in uhh…” she turned slowly then pointed hoof towards a stack of boxes at the far end of the room.  “That direction!”

Hoof floated out of his saddle bags a sawed off shotgun and quietly approached the other side of the boxes. As he drew closer a large gray shape lunged past him. Spinning around he looked at the creature.

“Oh, it’s just a…”

“RAAAAAT!!” Flower screamed with rage then flung herself at the large mutated rodent, covering the length of the antechamber in one leap. The rat’s eyes when wide in fright and just managed to run out of the way before all four of the mare’s hooves slammed down into the metal floor where it was standing.

The rodent shrieked in terror as it dove past the massive door and down the shelter’s main hall. Leaping back up, Flower practically turned in midair before galloping after it.

“Revenge!” She screamed like a mad mare down the hall.

She was scary when she was angry… and I was following her. Second Hoof was left back in the antechamber and was out of my range of perception by the time Flower reached the end of the hall. I guess I really am tied to just my killer, that’s at least one mystery solved.

Flower had cornered the large rodent in a living area at the end of the hall. “Not so tough now that you don’t have a dozen little friends are you?”

The terrified creature tried to bite at the mare’s hooves in desperation, but Flower was too fast. She lifted her forelegs up just as the rat stuck its head forwards, then she slammed her hooves down on its skull.

The thing was dead with the first stomp, but that didn’t stop flower. “I… HATE… RATS…!” She screamed, punctuating each word by smashing her hooves into the dead creature, until its head was pulped.  

Then, after catching her breath, she smiled contentedly and trotted back to the antechamber, leaving bloody hoof prints along the hall’s metal floor.

“Ah! I feel much better now.” Flower proclaimed as she met back up with Hoof.

He just stared at her forelegs and hooves covered in rat blood and sighed. “I’ll take a look around this place. You really should find a place where you could clean up.”

“All right.” she replied happily, then turned around and trotted back to the living area at the end of the hall.

Now that I wasn’t distracted by a crazed mare pulverizing an overgrown rodent, I got a better look of the room. It was a fair size, slightly bigger than what I’ve seen of then living quarters in Vault 123, and shared the same prefabricated segmented metal style of vaults.  It was sparsely furnished, with only a  bed off to the side, a desk with a terminal on it in the middle of the room, and several shelves lining the walls. The shelves by the door had its contents on the floor, mostly tools and thick technical manuals, I thought they were knocked off during Flower’s mad chase but then I noticed a thin layer of dust over them.

Off to the side of the room was a door, Flower walked over and opened it, revealing a full bathroom. “Ah.” she said pleased, then walked over to the bathtub. After turning both handles to full, she sat down beside the tub and plunged her bloody hooves under the warm water. Her Pip-Buck only clicked slightly from the radiation in the water.  I guess it’s from an underground well since it was cleaner than most water in the wasteland.

After her hooves were clean, and the last of the bloody water went down the drain, she turned off the water and stood up. Then she paused a moment in thought before smiling and turning the water back on. Taking the rubber stopper that was beside the tub, she plugged the drain and watched for a moment as the water level slowly rose.

Casually waking back into the main room, Flower closed the door to the hall and took a moment to find the lock and secure it. She then walked over to the computer, kicking the dead rat out of the way as she went, and turned it on. Surprisingly, not only was the terminal not locked but it already had a file on screen. Flower read through the file while waiting for the bathtub to fill.

Interesting, I can sense the temperature of the water as it fills the tub, just like the air, but I can’t feel the wetness. I need to get use to sensing things like this if I’m going to be stuck haunting this mare for the rest of her life. An odd thing about seeing everything form all sides is that there is no near or far, just a level of clarity as things exceed my circle of perception. The dust on the floor is just as clear as the large shelves along the wall. The drawback to this is that it’s hard for me to focus on any one thing, I have to mentally block out things or else it could get overwhelming. For example, I was only now suddenly aware that Flower was getting undressed as she read the terminal.

If I was still alive would do the gentlestalionly thing and advert my eyes, but that’s hard to do when you see everywhere.

Clothes are a funny thing. A pony can go around without a stitch on them and nopony would give it a second thought, or they could be covered head to hoof and it would be perfectly acceptable. Yet there is this odd transition period, when a mare or stallion is putting on or taking off clothes, that just feels different. Even in this blasted wasteland where societal norms have long since been destroyed in balefire, ponies still tend to change in private, and there is still some forbidden allure of observing this act.

Of course, all this pondering of the unusual traits of pony mentality was just an attempt to distract myself form the fact that I was observing a mare young enough to be my granddaughter stripping from every possible angle.

She had already tossed her duster onto the bed and was slipping out of her snug fitting Stable jumpsuit. The zipper opened easily enough but it must be a pain for anypony but a unicorn to zip back up. Also, I hoped that focusing on the zipper would prevent me from focusing on other parts.

She finally got her back legs out of the jumpsuit and I shifted my attention from the zippers to her flank. Not in that way! I was just curious what her cutie mark was. If I was going to spend the next who knows how long with her, I would like to have a clue on her special talent.

Well that’s different.

A violet and blue spider on a white circular web.

It wasn’t the kind of cutie mark you normally see in the wasteland, they tend to be more based around survival, and it wasn’t like the innocent simple marks you see in prewar pictures. The spider was a stylized collection of circles with 8 stick legs, more just the idea of a spider than a picture of one, and the pastel colors against the yellow flank almost made it look cute. Yet a spider cutie mark on a mare? Call me old fashion but I…

My attention was suddenly pulled away from the cutie mark as I became aware of something even more distinct about her body. A particular addition that I was not expecting at all.

Oh my… Last time I saw an earth pony mare in the buff, she didn’t have… those!

Well I guess that explains always keeping covered. In the buff Rock would get odd looks, at worst somepony might…

“Aaaaahhhhhh!” A panicked scream came from down the hall.

Having no time to put the jumpsuit back on, Flower threw on the duster, unlocked the door, and ran down the hall in the direction of the scream.

We found Second in a small room just past the kitchen area. He was several shades paler with a shocked expression on his face, and for good reason. The scene in the room looked like something out of a macabre horror story.

In the center of the room was a large rectangular steel monolith, almost twice as tall as a pony. Its surface was marred with dozens of dents and gashes, and a pick axe was still embedded in its side. Embedded in the front of the object was hoof sized green gemstone. A deep red stain dripped down from the jewel to a steel table that jutted out from the metal structure.  The crimson stain covered the surface of the table, surrounding the skeletal remains of the ponies that lay atop it. Sticking out of the dead pony’s chest was a large jagged knife, its handle was still held in the hoof of another long dead pony. The corpse that held the knife was slumped over the body on the table, but they weren’t the only two in the room. Around the room were the long dead remains of over a dozen ponies, most were adults but there were some foals among them. It looks like the last moments of some archaic blood sacrifice, all the participants frozen in death.

I’ve seen a lot of nasty stuff in my days, and this still made me feel uneasy. I don’t blame Second for freaking out after stumbling on this scene suddenly.

“Hmmm…” Rock intoned thoughtfully, seemingly oblivious to the carnage, then smiled in recognition. “I know what this is!”

“A murder scene?” Hoof asked as his color returned, sounding stunned at his companion’s positive reaction to the room.

“No. Well, yes, but I’m not talking about that.”

The yellow pony trotted over to the table and casually said “Pardon me Cookie.” before shoving the corpse on to the floor.

Hoof gasped. “What are you doing?!”

“Trying to get a better look at this.” Flower said tapping the gem with a hoof. “I think I could get it working with the right stuff. Hmm… or would I need things?”

Second just blinked in confusion, I think the poor stallion’s brain broke.

“Do you know of anything, or maybe stuff, that can give energy?” Flower asked while removing the pick axe from the side.

“Umm… You mean like a spark battery?” the olive pony stuttered trying to catch up.

“A battery! That sounds right! Do you have any?”

Second levitated out of his saddle bag a blue and gray rectangular spark battery.

“Hmm, it’s smaller than I expected.” Flower said taking it from him while I resisted the urge to make a joke nopony could even hear. “I’ll see if I could find some more now that I know what to look for!”

As Rock raced out of the room with me in tow, I saw Second give a frustrated sigh and face hoof before he was out of my perception range.

Flower spent all night working on the strange gem, often traveling back to the room at the end of the hall to check something on the computer, look in a technical manual, or jot something down on a small notepad.

By morning the sum of the yellow pony’s work was a network of wires, tubes, and small circuit boards running from half a dozen spark batteries to the green gemstone. I had no idea what it was supposed to do, but Rock seemed very contend with the end result.

With a wide grin Rock trotted to the living quarter in the middle of the hall that Second went to sleep in, then threw open the door without even a knock and proclaimed “Rise and shine Second, soup’s on!”

What?

“What?” Hoof’s response mirrored my own, although more sleepily.

“Come on! You get first try!”

“First try of what?” but Flower was already heading back to the creepy room of death.

A few minutes later the sleepy unicorn trudged into the room, his mane now unkempt and looking much better in my opinion. “What’s going on?” he asked with a yawn.

“Just watch!” Flower giggled and then flicked a switch on one of the circuit boards.

The green gem slowly hummed to life, letting off an eerie glow. After a second of nothing happening Hoof opened his mouth to say something, but Flower lifted a hoof for silence. Then a deep red mark appeared in one of the clear tubes connected to the gemstone. It gradually expanded along the length of the tube, filling its length with the crimson fluid before reaching the other end and flowing out into a small bowl. When the bowl was half full Rock turned the switch off and waited for the remaining fluid to drain into the bowl before passing it to Second.

“It’s only a prototype apparently, so the color is a little off, but it should be fine.” Flower smiled, then suddenly had a worried expression. “You’re not related in any way to the Goldberrys are you?”

“Who?”

“Never mind then.” The smile returned. “Well, drink up!”

Drink?! The creepy stuff from a magic stone from a room of death that looks like blood?

Hoof looked just as puzzled as I was. His puzzlement then turned to surprise when he smelled the fluid.

Great, I just realized that can’t smell or taste things.  Well, I guess that’s not too bad. If my sense of taste was like my omnipresent sight I would taste every surface in a room full of corpses…

Ughhhh… I am so glad that ghosts can’t vomit!

Slowly Hoof telekinetically lifted the bowl to his lips. I can’t believe he’s going to drink that!

After a small sip his eyes went wide in surprise.  Great! You’ve killed another pony Rock! I better make room on my side of the awareness circle for Hoof’s arrival.

“It’s tomato soup!” Second exclaimed before taking a longer drink. “And it’s good!”

Wat?

“If I had more spark batteries I could make it hot, but for now we’ll have to make due with a thin gazpacho.” Flower said modestly.

“A tomato soup talisman…” The unicorn said in awe looking at the gem. “What didn’t the prewar ponies think of?” He then turned back at Rock with a new look of admiration. “And you not only identified it, but got it working after 100 years!”

Flower’s cheeks blushed orange. “It wasn’t all that hard. I just put this together in whatever way that just felt right.”

Hoof then looked at the battered steel structure that held the talisman and sighed. “Too bad that we can’t take this thing with us.” He then knocked his hoof against the side to emphasize the scale of it. The knock reverberated through the steal box, followed by the sounds of straining metal which was soon replaced with a harsh screech. Then abruptly all the sounds stopped.

With a small “Plink” the tomato soup talisman popped free and landed in Flower’s outstretched hooves.

At the sudden change of events Rock let out a squee and exclaimed “Total sweetness!”

What?

If I had a pulse it would had stopped at that moment.

I’ve only known one other pony to have ever done that, and there’s no way that somepony four days out of a stable could know that expression, squee and all.

Second tilted his head inquisitively. “What was that?”

Flower looked back at him a bit confused. “I’m not sure. I must have heard that expression somewhere, but with my memory gone I don’t know where. It’s fun to say though.”

You heard it from me! I was thinking just last night about when Peachy use to say that! I can communicate, I just need to figure out how I did it!

“No, not that. I’ve heard that expression somewhere else. ” Second said and waved a hoof dismissively. “What I meant was that I thought I heard water flowing.”

The two of them looked towards the doorway and saw a low puddle of water begin to seep into the room.

Flower looked at the water a moment before suddenly charging through the slowly flooding hall.

“I forgot about my bath!”

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This fan-fic is just part of a larger story...
-Hear another side of the larger narrative with Fallout Equestria: Sounds
-See the bigger picture, take a look at Fallout Equestria: Sights.
-Follow the progress of all three tales at the Sights Sounds Souls Tumblr (and ask Colt questions).
-Track all the parts in one place at the Project Hubr!

Author note:
Second part down! the mysteries are starting to pop up and things will get more wild in part 3! Be sure to check out Sights and Sounds too.

Huge thanks to all my editors!
My Souls editors Nyerguds and Hidden_Fortune, without whom this fic would be 20% lamer.
My Sights editor Julep, who keeps all the pictures nice and derp free!
My Sounds editor No One, whose constant encouragement is what got this insanity off the ground to begin with (and for making FoE: Heroes the best Fallout Equestria side fic ever)!

And super thanks to Kkat for making this wild wasteland we all play in!