//------------------------------//
// The Storyteller 
// Story: Student Six Watch Fallout Lore: The Storyteller Series 
// by Rated Ponystar 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 17:





The Storyteller








"Wait, are we actually going to learn about the narrator himself?" Smolder asked in surprise. "Now that I think about it, who is this guy?"

"He looks like he's a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, but his power armor is all different," Gallus pointed out. "Like it's custom made or something. Plus, I don't see any of the Brotherhood's insignia on his armor."

"Maybe he's just a friend of theirs?" Silverstream suggested.

"Or maybe it's just Non-Brotherhood power armor?" Sandbar theorized. 

"But the only people who have power armor besides the Brotherhood of Steel are the Enclave and NCR," Ocellus said while looking deep in thought. "Could he be a former member of either group, or did he really just customize his own power armor without assistance from any of the Wasteland powers."

"Can we just play already! Yona wants to learn more about Storyteller!" The yak whined as she pointed to the title "The Storyteller" on it. 

"Huh, so that's his name," Gallus replied with a shrug. "Sounds ponyish."

"Ponyish?" Sandbar asked, his eyebrow raised.

"Well, you ponies kinda have your names really on the nose either about yourselves or about objects, emotions, seasons, or any kind of noun-based symbolism," Ocellus stated. "I mean, our names don't sound like food."

"Or colors."

"Or rocks."

"Or emotions."

"Or objects you find in the sky."

"Fine, I guess our names aren't the most original. Sue us," Sandbar muttered, rolling his eyes as Silverstream decided to start the last of the vids.





The video started showing a wandering ghoul traveling in various locations ranging from a desert to an icy tundra to a ruined city and more. The narrator, or Storyteller if the title was his name, described that few people remembered the time before The Great War. The handful of them was no longer human such as ghouls or those who had their brains in jars. Others were able to cheat their demise by circumstance such as being abducted by aliens, put in stasis, or having a life support system the likes never seen before. However, one person had seen it all from the start to now. Rumors called him everything from a ghoul to a super mutant, but he was just Harold to those who knew him in real life.

Harold, who the six realized they were watching, was climbing up a mountain when the video changed to a black and white reel showing the Great War in all its infamy as soldiers lay in trenches while watching bombs go off. Navy and aircraft traveled along the sea and air towards Anchorage, Alaska, where the last resources were being fought over between the US and China. Harold was just a child at the time and didn't remember much, which wasn't a surprise since he was still learning his letters and numbers. 

"I can't imagine being a kid at that time," Silverstream whispered with a sad sigh. "Kids are supposed to have fun, learn about the world around them, and be loved. Not forced to see their entire world fall apart from war and hatred."

Harold had managed to get lucky and survive one of the working vaults of Project Safehouse. The others had already known that Vault-Tech and the US government had made many vaults faulty for their sinister experiments. Only they were learning of some bizarre ones, such as one where a thousand kids were alone with no adults or a cloning system that made the clones go insane and murderous. The one that made them all growl was the vault about ritual human sacrifice, but thankfully the Storyteller didn't go into detail about that one.

A human, who had to be Harold before his ghoulification, was seen walking around the Wasteland in a Vault 29 Jumpsuit. Now an adult, Harold took part in the first communities of the new Wasteland he had to call home, working as a percent and prospector. A simple but safe life for the most part, and he was successful enough to start his own caravan business. Then, one day, he and his partner, Richard Gray, went to look into some mutants harassing their caravans to put a stop to it. Little did either know this journey would change their lives forever.

Because the place they found them was at an old military base. Specifically, the same one where the FEV was being tested on and where Roger Maxson, founder of the Brotherhood of Steel, revolted all those years ago. 

"Wait, they found that base?" Ocellus cried out. "Talk about bad luck."

"Or fate." Sandbar stated.

While they were no Super Mutants, the monsters that lived there were some of the worst ever seen. Most of Harold's companions were killed despite having all the mutants filled with lead to make them dead twice over. In the end, only Harold and his friend Richard had survived before seeking shelter in the base. 

"Yak got bad feeling about this," Yona said, which the others all gulped and agreed on the yak's statement.

The Storyteller confirmed what they all suspected. Based on both the US government and Brotherhood notes, the base contained the Forced Evolutionary Virus. Be it by accident, ignorance, or on purpose, both men were exposed to the FEV, and each suffered different mutations. A familiar and sinister shadow with computers and tentacles appeared, and instantly all six were on edge but kept calm for the most part this time. Gallus even managed to get Silverstream to stop playing dead three seconds into her performance. It turned out that Richard Gray, once an average human and friend of Harold, was the true identity of The Master. The creator and leader of the Super Mutant army who tried to take over the world and end humanity.

"So that's where this guy came from? He was a normal human and just went crazy?" Sandbar asked.

"Some villains don't need dramatic and tragic backstories, I guess," Ocellus replied as she wrote some notes.

Harold, thankfully, didn't turn into such a monster. He turned into a ghoul but looked more human than most. Harold was unique. Since people didn't know what he was or how to deal with them, Harold became an outcast among his once fellow humans like any other ghoul at the time. He lost his business, friends, customers, and everything but the clothes on his back and a few possessions.

"That's terrible," Silverstream whispered. "Poor Harold."

Harold moved to the Hub, doing what he could to earn money, and soon met face to face with none other than the famous Vault Dweller from Vault 13. The future savior of the Wasteland. Of course, Harold didn't know he was in the presence of greatness and just thought he was another lost soul who needed help. It wasn't until long after he learned that the greenhorn kid he met was a hero destined for glory. Harold didn't play any particular or unique role in helping the savior of the Wasteland, but he still used the meeting between them as a way to tell a story to earn caps. 

The Vault Dweller was a hero known throughout the Wasteland as a male human from Vault 13. Their water chip had broken down, and his Overseer sent him to find a new one. Specifically, Vault 15. It seemed weird and crazy to send a nobody who never experienced the outside world to do this, but nobody qualified, so the pick was random. 

"I wonder what the Vault Dweller's real name is?" Silverstream asked.

"We may never know," Smolder answered.

Unfortunately, Vault 15 had long been licked clean, and its inhabitants were roaming the Wasteland, with the nearest being Shady Sands, the future starting point of the NCR. After helping them out a bit, they directed him to the bigger settlements in California such as Junktown, The Hub, and more, but neither of them had water chips. Eventually, the Vault Dweller found a new water chip in the ghoul city of Necropolis, but that was not the end of his adventure, for he found himself face to face with a dark power rising from the ashes of the old world. The Super Mutants were making their impact on the world, and the Vault Dweller found himself facing them for the first time in Necropolis. At the same time, The Brotherhood of Steel, the most powerful faction, had also founded the Super Mutants, but only their corpses. After testing the Vault Dweller, they were impressed and welcomed him as one of their own. He was even given his own power armor after teaching him how to use it.

"You know, for a video called The Storyteller, we're learning more about people who are not The Storyteller," Gallus pointed out.

"Shh," the others said as they were heavily invested in the story and the photos.

Having discovered where the Super Mutant army was coming from and its leader, the Vault Dweller went on a full-frontal assault on the home base. They watched as the hero valiantly slaughtered the army of green monsters like a hero in a fairytale until he went deep into the darkest levels of the base. Although, sadly, none of them saw the climactic battle between the Vault Dweller and The Master, even though they all knew who won in the end. 

After his victory, the Vault Dweller was seen traveling with other humans through the Wasteland. Having been prevented from returning home, the Vault Dweller gathered a group of followers before making it north, where they founded the village known as Arroyo. It was a tribal society that wasn't high-tech, but they were free to live their lives free from any of the dangers of the outside world for a time. The Vault Dweller eventually passed on from old age, but his story was still strong even after all these years.

Very few who knew him are still alive, but one of them was Harold. Sure he didn't know him closely, but he used their meeting as a means to tell the tale of the Vault Dweller. Thanks to his mutation, he lived an unnaturally long life without worrying about dying of old age. However, that wasn't the only thing his transformation had given him. For some reason, a tree branch started growing out of his head.

"What?" The others all said in confusion.

"I...guess that's one way to stand out," Ocellus replied while wondering about the scientific and biological possibilities for that mutation to even happen in the first place.

It also turned out that Harold wasn't done meeting heroes yet either. In the ghoul city known as Gecko, Harold met the Vault Dweller's descendant, The Chosen One, who would be another savior of the Wasteland and future destroyed of the Enclave. 

"Wow, what are the odds of one guy meeting two heroes related to each other at different times?" Smolder asked. 

History seems to like to repeat itself because the Chosen One was also on a quest much like their ancestor and looking for Vault-Tec technology. Only this time, it was for a device known as a G.E.C.K. or Garden of Eden Creation Kit, which they needed to help save the village of Arroyo from dying. Anyone can turn a part of the Wasteland into a green paradise with the kit. 

Upon seeing the briefcase device on the screen, Sandbar asked, "How does something like that make an entire dying land a garden?"

"The better question is why didn't humanity use technology like this more often than their stupid weapons?" Silverstream pointed out.

"I can think of a lot of places here that could use a briefcase like that," Gallus thought as he recalled just how rotten and putrid some places in the Griffin lands could be. 

"Same here," Smolder said as she wondered what such a device could do for the ash and lava-covered dragon lands. 

The elders of Arroyo had sent the Chosen One to Vault 13 to find the location of where a G.E.C.K. could be found. Every Overseer of Vault 13 had been paranoid about the Wasteland (Not that the students couldn't blame them) and kept their location a secret until the end. The Chosen One had to search from place to place for knowledge of the old vaults, which led to a lot of traveling. Harold, meanwhile, had joined up with some other ghouls and was living peacefully with the residents of Vault City, who were originally from Vault 8. It turned out that Vault 8 had a G.E.C.K., but they had already used it to turn their decaying land into an oasis of shelter, food, and clean water, along with a thriving town that looked like something from the past golden age of America. With Harold's help, the Chosen One helped settle an issue with Vault City and the ghouls. Thus, Harold had taken part in another part of a great hero's history. 

"It's like looking at two different worlds," Smolder said as she looked at the video that showed the fancy and modern-looking Vault City.

Of course, others knew both the Vault Dweller and the Chosen One simultaneously. President Tandi of the NCR had met the first when she was a girl after he saved her from The Khans. The experience shaped her into a harsh and resourceful leader who helped turn the NCR into today's powerhouse. Seeing the same potential in the Chosen One, she convinced them to do a few dirty political jobs to bring some of the other territories into their fold. Even back then, the NCR was trying to expand its borders, but none could deny that it had significantly impacted the nation.

"At what cost is the question," Sandbar said with a shake of the head. 

"Come on. You don't seriously think that all great nations aren't made without dirtying their hooves a bit, right?" Smolder asked with a snort. "I'm pretty sure Equestria has a few dark secrets that the Princesses keep glossed over in the history books or don't even talk about at all. No nation is a hundred percent virtuous, Sandbar. I think you have to realize it."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I have to like it," Sandbar muttered.

Eventually, the Chosen One did learn about the Enclave's plan to wipe out most of humanity. The very same people who had helped start the war, Project Safehouse, the mutations, bombs, and disasters the people of the Wasteland had been suffering from even today were all thanks to their actions. And now they wanted to play God one last time and create a world where only they and their families could live and thrive. However, the Chosen One, a mere "tribal savage" in their eyes, had gathered their friends to stop Enclave and ruin their plans, so they headed east in retreat.

"Talk about irony," Silverstream said with a giggle.

The Enclave weren't the only ones to head east. The Brotherhood sent a few expeditions in the same direction, such as Chicago (Which they lost contact with) and Washington D. C. What did this have to do with Harold? Well, it turns out he went east as well, but...

"Goodness gracious! He's turned into a tree!" Sandbar shouted as the others gasped and leaned back in horror.

Having traveled east himself for unknown reasons, the tree branch in Harold's head eventually grew to full size. Now he was a tree, trapped inside of it, with nowhere to go as he continued to grow and spread his roots out. This led to a group of religious followers who worshiped him as they thought he was some kind of nature god due to the grass and plants growing greener around him. Although grateful for the company and care, he was still crankier than ever, with the only other visitors being strangers who visited him to ask questions after drinking the "magical" concoction of the followers. 

"That has to be a weird experience," Gallus said, scratching his head. "You become a tree and then get worshiped as a living god by a bunch of hippies."

"Somehow, I think Professor Fluttershy wouldn't mind this," Ocellus said. "Didn't she mention once she'd like to be a tree?"

"Yona not want to be tree. She get cut down and made firewood. Or used by animals as home and toilet."

"Didn't need to think that," Smolder muttered in disgust.

But while things might be settling down in the east, things were stirring up again in the west. The group growled in disgust upon seeing Caesar himself looking over the Hoover Dam with his army ready to march soon. Arizona had been razed to the ground, and from it came a new power, Caesar's Legion, who were seeking to dominate all in their wake. Standing at a standstill with the New California Republic, the two dominant forces sought control over Hoover Dam and the Mojave in general. That is, if Mr. House, the leader of New Vegas, doesn't try to do anything first.

The Storyteller told them he was glad that Harold got out of California before it all started going crazy. He hoped his friend was still alive and wanted to share and hear more stories with him. 

"So, the Storyteller and Harold are friends?" Silverstream asked. "Aw, that's sweet. See guys. Friendship does exist!"

"Yeah, I guess it's nice to know that even in these dark times in a messed up world as The Wasteland, you got people making friends," Sandbar said with a nod of approval and a soft smile.

Suddenly, to their surprise, the video showed the so-called Storyteller by a fire as he looked directly at them from a rusty old chair. "That's all we have at the end, you know? Whether it's talk of the Old World or what's happening at the other side of this dust bowl. Stories allow us to travel to places we've never actually been. Live lives some of us can only dream of. Of course, that's just the handful of stories I've stumbled across in my days. The Wasteland has many more secrets buried in its sands, and strangers like me are all too happy to share them with fellow travelers...even ones from another dimension."

"Wait, what?" The six said in surprise. 

"I have to admit. Seeing a unicorn from another dimension where magic and fantasy are real is something I would never have believed, much less get the chance to experience. Still, I doubt anyone will believe this no matter who I tell it to," The Storyteller said as he looked into the fire. 

"Wait, is he talking to Starswirl the Bearded?" Sandbar asked as everycreature looked closely. 

There was a brief silence before the Storyteller looked at them again. "Did I ever tell you the time I took a boat down the Chesapeake Bay and met the inbred descendants of pre-war hillbillies in the swampy ruins of an old park?"

"Um, no, not really," The movement of the video then moved to show that, indeed, it was Starswirl the Bearded standing there next to the fire with the Storyteller. The famous unicorn sighed and rubbed his head. "Look, all I asked you was where this drink called Nuka-Cola came from, and you instead went into a ramble about this Harmony forsaken world for four hours without barely mentioning anything of it."

The unicorn then lifted the said drink and took a sip of it. "Seriously, that's all I wanted to know since it's good. Now that you rambled on about it, I have to find some way to take shots of all these places, figures, and people so that ponies think I didn't waste my time here. All I wanted was a drink!"

There was a long silence between the six who just stared at the screen in disbelief.

"You mean to tell me...that the only reason we have this entire collection of videos...is because Starswirl The Bearded...was thirsty?" Smolder asked.

"...I have a feeling my respect for him just went down a lot," Sandbar muttered, with the others nodding in agreement.

"Well," The Storyteller said as he cleared his throat, "back in the way back times, people in the Old World took their soda pop seriously. There's an old cowboy robot over at the Sunset Sarsaparilla Factory that'll tell you-"

"Ugh, please, no more stories," Starswirl moaned as he threw his soda away. "Honestly, I don't care anymore. Besides, it might be best to do all this stuff remotely without even talking to humans, especially if they are as chatty as you. You have all these bloodthirsty creatures, dangerous environments, and pretty much bombed your entire world to oblivion over a war that makes our wars back in Equestria look like snowball fights. How are you people even surviving out here despite all this?"

"In the Wasteland, a body either learns to survive or dies right quick. There's a lady that published a survival guide of sorts a few years ago. She lives in a town that has a pre-war bomb right in the middle-"

"I don't care!" Starswirl cried out as he facehoofed. "You already told me about this place like three times! If you know so much about this stuff, why don't you do what I'm doing and record it all while talking about it?! Maybe that way, you humans can stop dying like idiots and get around to fixing this stupid world. Jeez, this world has to be one of the worst ones I've come across. And again, it's filled with humans! How many dimensions are there that have your race as the dominant or near dominant culture?!"

"Wait, there are more humans out there in other worlds?" Smolder asked before pouting. "What the heck?! Why them?! Why not dragons?!"

"Or yaks?!"

The Storyteller seemed to pause upon hearing this. "You mean...like my own Wasteland Survival Guide?"

"Yeah," Starswirld sighed as he closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "Anyway, I'm going to sleep and go back home tomorrow. I'll figure out how to do all this...nonsense of talking Deathclaws, crazy dictators, and sex robots later...although I may edit that one out later."

"...Sex robots?" Gallus asked.

"Let's not think about it," Ocellus wisely stated.

"By the way, I never got your-" Starswirl the Bearded looked up and saw that the mysterious Storyteller was gone. This also shocked the group since they didn't even see him leave. "Huh, well. Might as well turn this off and head to bed...right after having another bottle of Nuka-Cola. Seriously, where can I find this recipe..." 

And with that said, the last of the video ended, and the screen disappeared. For a few minutes, the six of them just sat there in silence, trying to think of what they had just all seen, and Smolder couldn't help but laugh. The others stared at her as she pointed to the orb and said, "All of that for some soda?! That's hilarious!" 

The others soon started snickering, but then they all started laughing as well. The whole thing was just ridiculous when they thought about it more. After a few minutes of laughing, the six of them soon calmed down and shook their heads. "Well, I bet Headmare Twilight would be going confused if she saw this," Gallus said.

"Speaking of which," Silverstream cleared her throat, "we did start this all off for an assignment, right? Are we still going to use this world?"

To everycreature's surprise, Sandbar was the first to state his opinion by saying, "Of course, we should!" 

"Huh, but I thought you hated this Wasteland world?" Smolder asked, tilting her head.

"Yeah, I don't like it," Sandbar said, shaking his head in disappointment. "These humans caused their entire world to fall into chaos. Even after all that, they still fight each other instead of helping each other. There are indeed good people and organizations trying to help humanity get back on its feet, but it's not enough. I don't know if they'll ever learn their lessons or not, and I do hope they do, but if there is one thing that I can say about learning all this, we need to make sure it doesn't happen in our world. Just because it's impossible to think of such an event happening now doesn't mean it won't happen in the future."

Sandbar walked over and picked up the orb. "I don't know if this world can be saved by Friendship or not, but I do know we can talk about how to prevent such a thing from happening. We need to realize that we can share our resources, talk things over, work together for the better of others, trust ourselves, and not let the greedy or ambitious rule over us while making sure people's rights are protected. Maybe we can't prevent our end if such a thing is destined to happen, but maybe we can at least delay it or leave behind a legacy to help inspire others to do better after it. Something the humans in this world sadly never learned."

The others all looked at each other and nodded upon hearing Sandbar's words. Maybe there wasn't anything they could do to help the world they learned about, but maybe there was a chance to make sure that what happened there never happened here.

"Well, we better get ready for a long night of writing because there is a lot to cover," Ocellus said as she levitated her notes. "Good thing I wrote as much as I could."

"Can we get grub first?" Yona rubbed her stomach. "Yona hungry."

"Yeah, I could have a go for a meal too," Gallus said as he got up onto his feet. "Let's head to Sugarcube Corner and get out of this room for some sunlight."

The others agreed as they made for the door, but the door stayed still upon wrapping his claw around the doorknob and turning it. Gallus blinked before turning it again. The others looked at him in confusion as the griffin struggled to turn the doorknob. "Come on, already! Let's go! Open the door!" Smolder said, tapping her foot on the floor.

"I'm...trying...but...the door... won't...open!" Gallus growled as he grit his teeth and tried moving them as much as possible. After a few more minutes, he gave up while rubbing the sweat off his brow. "Ugh, did someone glue the door shut?"

"Ugh, stand aside and let a dragon handle this," Smolder proclaimed as she pushed him aside and gripped the knob as hard as she could. She then started pulling, pushing, and twisting as much as possible, but no matter how hard the dragon tried, she couldn't get it to move either. 

"Of for the love of fire rubies!" Taking a deep breath, Smolder let out a blast of dragon fire while the other five hit the deck. However, when the flames died down, instead of a burned and ashed door, it stood the same perfect look without a scratch on it.

"Wha....what?!" Smolder gasped in shock as she touched the door. "Um, that shouldn't have happened."

"Did you guys get fireproof doors?" Ocellus asked Sandbar and Gallus. 

"No," Sandbar said before rubbing his chin. "At least, I don't think so."

"Yona try next! YAK SMASH DOOR!!!" 

Having experienced this multiple times before, all five of Yona's friends quickly jumped out of the way of the charging yak, who ran as fast as she could with her head down low. However, upon the impact of the charge, a dark purple shield of energy bounced Yona off the door and sent her flying halfway across the room, much to her friends' horror.

"Yona!" Silverstream shouted as she flew over to their dazed friend first while the others soon surrounded her. "Are you okay?!"

"Uh, yak's head hurt..." Yona groaned.

"Hey! Look!" Ocellus said as the door started to glow again, but a strange symbol appeared on it this time, much to their confusion.






"A-Anyone know what that means?" Silverstream asked with a gulp.

"Hey, if some flankhole is messing with us! Stop it right now!" Gallus shouted as he looked around for whoever was causing this. 

Suddenly, they heard the orb making sounds and turned around to see it glowing purplish-black for a moment before it reactivated, but what appeared on the screen was something very different:




"Tamriel. Dawn's Beauty in the language of the Altmer, or Taazokaan in the dragon's tongue, is the content in which all the Elder Scrolls games take place. Home to many diverse races, and even more conflicts, Tamriel has been host to many adventures. You've experienced Tamriel in your own way, but want to learn more about its story. Well, to get to the heart of the story, you have to go back to the beginning..."