Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light

by SilverAura

Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light Ch3

Luck, if you can call it that, works strangely in your favor if you let it. After Cloudy Melody and I got back to the surface, and I had overcome most of the shock of learning of the wasteland, we found a trader. He was passing through the base when we emerged from the data center; nearly scared him out of his barding.

As we approached I opened my mouth to speak but he spoke first in a deep voice, “Well this is new, never saw ‘nypony come outta’ that buildin’. Well afore now that is,” I couldn't quite place his accent, “so ‘ow did ya come to be in there?”

Cloudy Melody responded before I could open my mouth to respond, looked to be one of those days. “We were exploring the ruins to try to find items worth trading,” I gave her an odd look, “but we ran low on supplies and don’t know where the nearest settlement is.” Whatever she was trying to do it worked, because soon after she finished the trader pony told us he would let us accompany him to the next settlement on his route if we agreed to protect him along the way..

Before anyone else could speak after he set the terms I spoke up, “That sounds good but, I think we will need to get some barding of some sort for my companion here,” the fact that this trader pony didn’t have a guard already was bothering me. If he needed protection from here to the next settlement and knew it then why was he here alone? “We will come let you know if we find some in the ruins.”

What he said next surprised me, “No need ah’ ‘ave some combat barding from trading with the raider ponies ‘ere.” Cloudy Melody gave me a worried look, probably thinking I was going to gun him down for helping raiders, instead I asked a question of him.

“What do you want in exchange for it?” He looked at me as though sizing me up for a moment.

“Normally ah’ would say 100 bottlecaps,” ok, so it was the new currency,” but seeing as you will be givin’ me protection ah’ think I could let ya ‘ave it for free, and if ya die then ah’ just put it back in my inventory”

“I guess that sounds fair, and if we survive till the settlement?” I thought this sounded almost too good to be true.

“then the barding is yours fer keeps,” I nodded and then helped Cloudy Melody to put on the combat barding. It covered her chest, flanks, and legs very well. the armor had come with a triple saddlebag setup, one on either side of her, and one smaller one over her back. After we got her in the armor, I asked the trader about what else he had with him and he showed me his wares.

After looking through his inventory I had purchased 2 parts he considered mere junk for relatively cheep. I now had 4 of 6 parts needed for the Dash’s Lightning and still had 42 caps.

As we began to head out on the road the trader asked “so, why is a pegasus like ya down ‘ere anyway, don’t think ah’ve not noticed ya feathers peaking out from under that jacket”

“well, not like I was trying to hide it, just forgot to put my wings through their sleeves” I responded not seeing why it would be a big deal, but apparently it was. We had only just left the base and I had a feeling we would be talking most of the way, if not fighting.

“Ah’ve met pegasi ‘afore, they ‘ad a settlement in the mountains, ‘ad a stable for some o’ their leaders. That begs the question though, where is ya branding, or are ya a hunter for the Pegasus Enclave looking for deserter ponies?”

“What’s the Pegasus Enclave? I work, well, worked under the command of Rainbow Dash, if those Enclave ponies are hunting down ponies then it doesn’t sound like they are ponies I want to meet. They also don’t sound like the kind of ponies that Rainbow Dash would like either.” We were nearing a bridge by now, and so far no sign of any real dangers out here.

“Ya can’t tell me that ya were really in the war, that was 200 years ago. Only Goul Ponies be left from that time.”

“Well we are both from that time, and I followed him into stasis just to be with him. I couldn’t stand not to be with Silver Aura,” Cloudy Melody sure doesn’t waste time in telling strangers somewhat more personal topics.

“Ah still think ya be pullin my leg, but fine, if that be the case then why is ya cutiemark a cloud with musical notes, ah’ don’t think those ruins were for entertainment missy.” He was right about that but I wasn’t going to say anything, I was curious about this as well.

“well, it’s kinda a long story, but here it goes”

It started when I finally got accepted to the Equestrian Army, I was supposed to be in the boot camp, but I was always a bit eager to get right to the action. That usually got me in trouble but I was allowed to stay based on my skills in the training exercises. One day I was transferred to a field base for “special training” as they called it, but I have a feeling it was just because they didn’t want to put up with me anymore and hoped I got killed by a zebra.

At the field base it was almost the same story, except for Silver Aura being there. Despite what the higher officers told him he still chose me for his squad.

~~Well I knew you from school when we were younger, I knew you could be very helpful. Even if your judgement wasn’t always the best~~

Don’t interrupt, I’m telling this story! Now where was I? Ah, yes, the field base.

Soon after he chose me for his squad there was a battle. I ran out onto the battlefield even though I was supposed to be training at the base. I had never been in a real battle before that and I almost wound up dead, probably would have been killed if it weren’t for Silver Aura.

I was in the middle of the battlefield in a trench and severely injured, there were other injured ponies there with me and things were looking bad. We all thought we were done for, there wasn’t a Ministry of Peace pony anywhere nearby. It looked to be the darkest hour for me and the other ponies in the trench.

~~That still don’t esplain’ how ya got ya cutiemark, or even how ya survived~~

I’m getting to that! I began to sing in that trench, quietly at first, just trying to keep some hope that we would be rescued. I kept singing and eventually the other injured ponies started to join in one by one. It wasn’t really a specific song, but it did give us hope. We kept singing till Silver Aura found us with a Search and Rescue team.

Even after they found us we kept singing, all of us did until everyone else passed out from exhaustion. Even after everyone else stopped singing I kept going till we were back at the base. Back at the base I passed out after seeing Silver Aura’s smile. I later found out that he had carried me back himself. But what really made me smile after I woke up was Silver Aura telling me that when the team found us, it was because of our singing, and that when he lifted me out of the trench, I had my cutiemark.

To this day I still don’t fully understand what it means, but I have a feeling it’s something good.

“That’s because it does mean something good. That cutiemark shows that you are a beacon of hope in even the darkest of times. You got that cutiemark because you managed to help the injured ponies around you regain hope for rescue.” I started to explain to Cloudy Melody

“How do you know? I thought they still had some hope at that time”

“I know because your story brought back memories of my time at that base, when each of the ponies awoke they said they had lost hope for rescue before you started to sing. Even if it wasn’t any song in particular your singing brought back hope of rescue to them.” I smiled at her and gave her a pat on the back with my hoof.

“well, that clears up the mystery for ya missy. Now what about ya cutiemark mister pegasus.”

“I... don’t really remember how I got mine, I barley remember much of my past, before The Vault.”

“Ah’m sorry to ‘ear that, sounds like ya got yaself some amnesia. Ah’m sure it will come back to ya in time.”

“I hope you’re right, what about you? What’s your cutiemark?” I asked the trader

“Afore ah tell ya ah must say that ah’m not proud of it, ah never show anypony under normal circumstances. Ah got mah’ cutiemark when ah was still a raider,” He stopped and moved some of his leather barding covering his flank. The cutiemark looked like it shouldn't have even been called a cutiemark. It looked to be a pony’s corpse impaled on several spikes with a pool of blood at the bottom of them. “Ah got it fer, well, ya can probably guess what it was fer. ‘Bout a year after gettin it ah decided that the life of a raider was not fer me. That’s when ah became a trader and started to cover my cutiemark so nopony would ever know bout mah questionable past.” After telling and showing us it he put his leather barding back in place.

We were starting to come up on some buildings that looked to be mostly ruined. It looked like it might have been a big city back when I was at the base. I started to wonder what the trader had meant earlier about hunters for some Pegasus Enclave. I wondered if they were in the buildings waiting to attack anyone who came near.

“So, who are the Pegasus Enclave hunting? I know you said deserters but who?” I was very curious about this.

“They are huntin the Dashites, more specifically they want to hunt down Dashites before they join the Dashite Unity.”he told us.
“Who, or what are the Dashites?” me and Cloudy Melody asked in unison, which showed that even she didn’t know everything about the wasteland.

“They are Pegasus Ponies who left the Enclave to come down to the wasteland and try to help us earthbound ponies, following the example of Rainbow Dash when the bomb hit cloudsdale. Whenever a Dashite is found by the Enclave above the clouds they get branded with a brand in the shape of Rainbow Dash’s cutiemark. The Dashite Unity is a group that formed to help organise the Dashites here in the forgotten wastes. They work toward helping everypony they can here, they were the ones who helped me change mah ways.”

“The Dashites sound like very good ponies, I know I would never betray Rainbow Dash. That’s why I had this made”I floated the Dash’s Lightning out of the sheath and showed it to the trader.

“That’s a pretty amazing blade, anypony who would have a blade like that made is one good pony in mah books. This sword may prove ya to be a Dashite without the brandin. However if ya go above the clouds and are spotted then ya might receive one.” I put the Dash’s Lightning away after showing him.

We reached the settlement with little combat, and the trader kept his word and let us keep the combat armor, and as a bonus he also gave us 100 caps. “anythin’ ta help the Dashite Cause” was his reason for the bonus.

I checked the map on my Pipbuck and saw that it labeled the settlement as “Sunset Bay”. Before we parted ways with the trader he told us that we could probably ask around the town for more information on how to improve our map so we don’t get lost again. We thanked him and entered entered the town gates.

LEVEL UP
Level 4
New Perk:Interrogator; you gained the ability to extract information with as little conflict as possible, this perk adds unique dialogue options to some ponies, and raises speech by 5
Spell Level:Telekinesis level 2; you can levitate items easier without as much strain on your mind, and body.