//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Following Hearsay // Story: Fallout Equestria: Treasure Hunting // by Hnetu //------------------------------// [Please see Author's Note at the bottom of the page before reading further.] Chapter One: Following Hearsay “Nothing good ever comes from the Stables. They’re old world death traps.” Wasted. A wasted world… My sister and I grew up learning how to survive in the Wasteland. Our days were spent hiding out, treasure hunting, looting. Occasionally we’d trade with a traveling merchant, but we avoided the bigger cities. Even the smaller towns weren't something we wanted to be around. Mom had drilled into our heads that big groups in small places were dangerous. She didn’t have any love for communities, a holdover from whatever happened in the Stable we’d been born in. Considering what had happened in the whole of Equestria, I didn’t blame her. Once, the land was a wonderful place, ruled by the Goddesses, Celestia and Luna. A war hundreds of years ago reduced it to the irradiated deathscape I knew all too well. Maybe if that perfect world hadn’t ceased to exist due to balefire and megaspells, we’d live in a little town with lots of friends and maybe a normal job, and not be so damn scared of everypony else. The Wasteland wasn’t a kind place, nor were those who lived there. It was full of radiation and all sorts of monsters, the worst of which were other ponies. Surviving wasn’t easy, but I’d found ways to deal with it. My coping method was treasure hunting, because it was a lot more appealing to think of the junk and scraps of ancient food we found as treasure, than to admit it was all just trash left over from long dead ponies. “Hidden Fortune!” I winced and looked back at my sister. She never used my full name unless she- I slammed into a wall. “Stop daydreaming already,” she said calmly. Pointing a hoof past me, she smiled. “We’re here.” “Ow... Why didn’t you stop me sooner, Lost?” I demanded. “Stupid wall,” I muttered, before I actually looked at it. My eyes went wide as I looked straight up at the chunk of stone I’d walked into. This wasn’t a wall; it was part of a mountain. How the fuck did I not see that? “Why do you think I called your name? You should really be paying more attention, it was your idea to go out looking for this supposed ‘Dragon’s Cave,’” she said with a frustrated sigh. “I still think the trader was lying, Hidden.” She looked up the mountainside. “All the stories say their caves are at the top of mountains... This seems way too flimsy a reason to just trot off into the Wasteland without a plan.” I frowned. Leave it to the thinky unicorn pony to point out the obvious. “Whether he was lying or not, we might as well check while we’re here,” I countered. “Where there’s dragons, there’s treasure and we can’t pass up the chance.” Everything we’d been taught about Equestria from before the War agreed with that. And when would we get another shot at a dragon’s hoard? I wasn’t going to lose the opportunity to find something more than scraps and leftovers. We could find gold, gems, or maybe even jewelry, and it’d be all mine. I’d fill my saddlebags to the brim with golden bits, cover my bed with them, and then- “What if it’s been looted already?” asked Lost Art, snatching away the pleasant daydream. In the blue glow of her magic, she lifted her preferred gun, an odd boxy-looked gem-holding contraption that looked more at home in a pile of scrap electronics than in a firefight. We’d bought the magical energy weapon from the same trader who told us about the dragon’s cave. It wasn’t a rifle like mom’s was, but we knew what to expect from the energy pistol. Guns like it shot concentrated magic and hurt in ways I couldn’t describe. Lost preferred them though, since they didn’t have a powerful kick against her magic. “We take whatever wasn’t already stolen and isn’t nailed down. If it is, we find a hammer and take the nails, too,” I answered. Lost was overthinking it, even if she was the thinky one. “I’ll check this way and you check for the entrance on that side?” I turned and began scanning the rocky face of the mountainside, searching for the entrance. “Sure, but stay in sight,” she agreed, as she turned and headed in the opposite direction. Her voice sounded exhausted, just like always. She spent too much time worrying about me, not that it wasn’t justified. Without her, I’d have died more times than I could count. I’d gotten her out of bad situations before, too, but she didn’t get in as much trouble as I did. I poked around the edge of the rocky outcropping, looking for anything that looked like an entrance, but nothing stood out. It would be hard to miss an entrance large enough to fit a dragon, but it was just a sheer mountainside for as far as the eye could see. A short distance away was a dead forest, but I’d never heard of a dragon living in a forest. I climbed myself up onto one of the smaller boulders, but found nothing. Ear flicking, I heard yelling. “Hidden! Over here,” shouted my sister. I hopped down and galloped over as quickly as I could. “Think this is it?” she asked, pointing at a pony-wide crack running up the mountainside. “Must be,” I answered excitedly. Not wanting to waste any time, I pushed through the opening. I had to wriggle side to side to make sure the battle saddle I wore would fit. I’d traded the gun I used to use for two new ones, from the same trader we’d gotten L.A.’s new pistol from. The larger size of the new guns made getting through such a small opening no easy task. The extra trouble would be worth it, though, if we did come across a dragon. While strapping weapons to my sides, reloading with a hoof kick, and firing with a bite of the bit was a hassle at times, having the extra fire power more than made up for it. I had to make do, since the rifles were too big to hold with my mouth, and I didn't have cheater magic like my sister did. My sister squeezed in after me, the glow from her horn lighting up just enough to show the walls on either side of us. Once we were both completely inside, we started the careful trek forward. Past the light at the entrance, we found ourselves in complete darkness, broken only by the dim glow of my sister’s magic. There were no side branches, so we didn’t have anything like exploring or looting to distract us. At the same time, it meant nothing could sneak up on us from the side when we weren’t looking. Falling into habits drilled into our heads, we moved slowly and neither of us spoke. We didn’t want to alert any potential dangers, and gave us the chance to hear them coming first. If there was a dragon still here, we’d definitely want to know about it before it knew about us. Just as I started to worry the cave was far too small for a dragon, the tunnel began to widen. The deeper we went, the wider it got, until it finally opened into a huge cavern. I couldn’t see anything once we made it out into the open. Lost’s telekinetic haze simply wasn’t bright enough to light up the entirety of the cave at the same time. So we stuck to the wall and kept circling slowly around, looking for something that stood out. I’d expected to find something, but it was just so empty. This was just a... cave. It was ordinary in every way I could think, and completely underwhelming. Sneaking into a dragon’s lair shouldn’t be dull. “Kinda spooky isn’t it?” I whispered in a sing-song voice. I was answered by having my tail pulled. “Oof, I hope you get hair stuck in your-” Pulling myself free from her grip, I stumbled into a metal... thing sticking out from the wall. “You really need to look where you’re going,” she said with a snicker. “Are you okay?” I rolled my eyes. “I’m fine. If only I could see in here,” I answered. L.A. slid her gun away and brightened the glow from her horn. In front of us, behind the little console-thing I’d tripped over, was a massive doorway built into the cave wall. Painted in the center of it was a large ‘12.’ “It’s a Stable...” she whispered, sounding like she was remembering something. She trotted closer to the entrance from the console thing it'd stumbled against and waved me over for a better look. “Looks abandoned...” I looked at the gigantic door and stepped back so I wouldn’t cast a shadow over it and grinned. A glint from the far side of the room caught my eye. Tearing myself from the Stable, I walked over and saw an identical door with a large ‘21’ painted on it. Well, that was weird. “Looks like we have two Stables to loot!” I yelled, positively giddy at the prospect. Sure, it wasn’t a dragon, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t anything worth taking. And if we could loot it before any raiders showed up, then more power to us. I trotted back over toward ‘12,’ and ended up with a hoof in my face. This time I managed to stop before running into it. “What was tha-” “Shh,” she said, stuffing her hoof into my mouth. “Oh Felestia, bwa,” I moved her hoof away, “did you step in?” “The Wasteland,” she answered. Oh right... She sat tinkering with the console I’d walked into. “Mom explained how these work and what the codes are. Well, at least she explained how the Stable we came from worked. I can probably get it open, since they’re all made the same. I just need quiet so I can work.” I stuck out my tongue and tried to scrape the taste off with my teeth. Knowing she would take a while, I rolled my eyes and I went further around the circular cavern to see if I could find a third Stable. After making a full round, I came up empty. I found lots of skeletons, but nothing else. There were bones all over in little piles, where ponies had once held each other as the world ended. It was terrible, what had happened, how they had died. But, well, I grew up in the Wasteland and learned to get over it fast. The Wasteland was harsh, no matter what. Had I been born in a different time, maybe instead of mismatched barding and big guns, I’d be wearing a sundress and be sightseeing in Canterlot. But we didn’t get to choose when we were born, so this was my life: treasure hunting with my big sister in the remains of that world. I prodded at the side of the console. “Are you done yet?” I whined. “Yes, now stop complaining!” she said. “Get ready. It looks abandoned, but we don’t know what might be in there.” I trotted back from the door with her. It always amazed me how she managed to find a way to make this sort of thing work. But given the gear and brush cutie mark on her haunches, it was just something she was naturally good at. At least she got a useful talent, all I had was a badass looking X and luck with finding more junk than most. While it wasn’t a dragon’s hoard, hopefully this Stable would hold enough stuff we could trade to the next merchant we come across to make this trip worthwhile. Maybe I could even dig up some old items that Lost can fix up for our own use. Even if it wasn’t, it was more fun treasure hunting than getting wasted on booze or high on Dash. Not after last time... I brushed my mane away from my face and waited for her to get behind me. Bit in my mouth, and guns ready, I waited for her to open the Stable. Lost looked at me nervously, the dim light of her magic reflecting off her blue eyes. “Ready?” she asked. I nodded. She flicked whatever switch she had jury rigged with her magic, and with a horrific screech, Stable 12’s door swung open on its gigantic hinge inward. Both of us shuddered, the hooves-on-chalkboard sound of metal grating against metal was... something intense. It seemed to last forever. Finally, with a thud, it stopped. The door had disappeared completely into the darkness. We both stared through the opening, waiting. I was ready if anything appeared, but couldn’t see a thing. Then finally... Nothing. Breathing a collective sigh of relief, my sister moved around me and into the darkness. “Guess it’s safe,” she said, her horn lighting up again. With those three words, I followed. * * * The inside of the Stable was very different from the Wasteland. Everything seemed quiet and... confining. I had no memories of the Stable I was born in, or what it was like, if it was like this one at all. What my sister and I were used to was... well, a Wasteland, the outdoors. It was all dirt and rotten everything. The metal floor here almost hurt to walk on, it didn't give like dirt would. It was far too solid, sturdy and cold. I felt like the walls were closing in on me, the air was stale, thick and heavy. Small spaces didn’t scare me, but I don’t think I could live like this. It was just too... gray and ominous. The cloud cover outside was imposing, but a maze of long hallways and low ceilings didn’t seem like the kind of place a pony should live. It was hard for me to imagine ponies living in a place like this, feeling cold steel on their hooves all the time. We wandered for what felt like ages, stuck weaving from hallway to hallway and finding little but doors sealed shut by the lack of power. The corridors all started to blend together, and with no way to tell where we’d been or where were were going, I started to worry about getting lost. Any doors that weren’t already open wouldn’t budge no matter how hard either of us pried. A few corpses dotted the hallways, all of which had long since rotted, leaving nothing but dried husks covered in tattered Stable barding. They had the flaked and rotten skin of Wasteland ghouls. It worried me, that we might be walking into an irradiated deathtrap with no way to tell. Although, we'd been wandering around the Stable for hours, and I wasn't feeling any signs or radiation sickness yet. It was unlikely that we’d be turning into ghouls ourselves any time soon. Both the floor and the bodies we’d found were coated in a film of dust, as if they’d been lying there unmoving for decades. In reality, the entirety of the Stable was dead. Of course, everything we had seen was, but what seemed the most dead was the structure itself. The lights were all out, leaving us only the glow from my sister’s horn to guide us. I’d assumed there would be something down here, machines of some sort to keep ponies alive underground, but the only sound in the Stable was our hooves hitting against the floor. I could hear faint scraping echoing down the halls, like hooves slowly rustling against the floor. Probably my mind playing tricks on me. “This is strange,” L.A. said in a whisper. “Mom always said they built these things to last. Even if there weren’t ponies still here, the machinery should still be running...” I looked at one of the corpses. “The door was sealed... so why are we finding ghoulified corpses?” I whispered to my sister. I looked at my sister expectantly, hoping she might have an explanation. All I got back was a shrug. “Maybe we should have tried Stable Twenty One first?” “Maybe, but we’re already here, so lets finish before we try the other Stable,” she said. “Let’s see if we can’t find the room of the... what was it...” My sister paused for a moment and tapped against her head a few times while thinking. “Overmare.” She punctuated the word as she remembered it. “The Overmare’s office.” “Okay, so where do we go for that?” I asked expectantly. She stood there for a moment, looking around. The hazy light of her magic swung through the dark hallway, making the corpses against the walls cast eerie shadows. We had no idea where we were in the Stable, after having wandered for so long. I never knew the layout of whatever Stable we’d come from, and Lost must have been too young to memorize it. No matter which way we went from here, there was a chance that the winding maze of hallways would lead us nowhere. We’d hit a few dead ends already, leaving us even more turned around from all the backtracking. “I have no idea, just stick close and stay quiet,” she said, her tone far too overprotective. There wasn’t a single pony alive here, only corpses. What could hurt us? After what seemed like hours of searching and absolutely nothing to break the monotony, we came across an open door with a green glow coming through it. “Might be something there,” L.A. said, trotting closer to the door. “Hopefully,” I said. Lost looked inside, then turned back to me. “There’s a working terminal,” she announced. “Wonder how its on if the power is out?” She trotted into the room and went straight to the terminal. Sitting before it, she started to tap away with both her hooves and her magic. I didn’t particularly like dealing with terminals, so I let her do... whatever it was she did to make them work for her. With what little light came from the sickly green screen and the blue haze of her magic, I looked around the rest of the room. It was very basic, with only a bed, dresser, and the terminal desk. I poked around the the dresser and under the bed, finding nothing but dresses that were too ruined to wear. With no treasure worth taking, I sat on the ancient dusty bed and watched as my sister did her sciency thing. All I could see was nonsensical, unreadable gibberish on the screen, but she somehow knew what she was doing. “Got it,” she announced, looking back and me and smiling wide. Her magic clicked a few times on the keyboard. I trotted over and read off the screen over her shoulder: Dear Diary, I’ll never understand why we have to be tied to Stable 21. I don’t trust any of them. The doors should be sealed completely, but no one here has any tools to do so. Maybe they do on 21’s side, but I wouldn’t even bother asking. If they did, they’d just steal everything we have and seal us in our own tomb. Roselle “Finished?” asked Lost. When I grunted an affirmative, she clicked over to the next entry in the list. Dear Diary, I finally went over to 21 to have a look and see how the other side lives. I snuck down last night, long after lights out so I wouldn’t be seen. I really hope nopony saw me. Their Stable is a lot nicer than ours. I think it was done on purpose… So we could see what Stable-Tec was capable of, what they’d do for the higher class ponies. They live in luxury compared to us! A guard was patrolling though, so I hurried back as soon as I heard him. Didn’t want to get caught. We don’t have guards either, which just isn’t fair. They get free range of everything, if only Princess Celestia and Princess Luna knew about what Stable-Tec was trying to do before the bombs hit. I suppose that if they were strong enough to stop what Stable-Tec was doing below their noses, they’d have been able to stop the War. So pointless. Roselle “Next?” I asked, nudging for her to click on the next. When she did, I started reading. Dear Diary, One of the ponies from 21 came over today. I managed to corner him and ask a few questions. Turns out they’re in the same boat as us. Apparently the guards patrol both Stables’ basements overnight to make it look like we both have guards. He said he’d never seen any guard ponies there, only the one on our side. I d n’t know why they built t7e basement tog^ther if w ’re not all9wed down 7here. Do3s the Over#1are kno ? %51he woul ’t kee-. thi& f%31rom us, w*u%20ld she%#12? Rose09999#NaN={f885%i}h:$@465k>$?