Fallout Equestria:
All For You, Ms. Cheerilee
The running colt dodged through the night, making his way between boulders and stones while trying desperately to stay ahead of his pursuers. Sometimes he could hear their hooves on the scattered rocks that dotted the landscape. Occasionally, there was a shout or some sound to indicate that the ponies following were still hot on the trail.
This should have never happened. Tears streaked from the colt’s eyes as flashes of memory caught up with him. His family was dead. They’d been murdered only minutes before by the same gang that was after him. And why? Why? What kind of ponies would commit such a terrible crime for so little?
So many questions, but the only thing that mattered was survival. He had to keep running or die. The colt kept pounding on, concentrated so hard on coaxing more from his tired body that he didn’t realize the sounds from behind him had faded away.
His parents named him Chance, although that was really more of a nickname than anything. It didn’t fit his green coat or dusty grey mane. Mostly, it was just something to call him.
Dashing through the field of rocky debris, Chance saw an open area up ahead where there seemed to be an old building foundation. It was hard to tell in the darkness. It was there that the trap he never saw was sprung.
Two menacing earth ponies jumped in front of him, coming from the field of rocks without warning and brandishing rusted knives. Skidding to a halt, Chance whirled around only to find that a few unicorns with an ill kept assortment of firearms and another huge earth pony, this one with a sledgehammer of all things, had closed the gap behind him and blocked off any path to flee. The colt turned this way and that, but there were no routes for escape.
A well-muscled unicorn stepped from the circle of villains crowding around Chance. He wasn’t the biggest of them, but he carried the most scars and there was the look of cruel experience in his eyes. Light from his horn cast illuminating an isolated portion of the night. He smirked and looked the panting colt up and down. “It’s too bad you decided to give us trouble. We could have used somepony to carry our crap, dispose of the bodies, or whatever. Maybe when you got your cutie mark, it would be for manual labor. We probably would have let you join us after a few raids. Maybe then you could have been a real stallion rather than sniveling puss.”
There was a chorus of chuckles from the group. While Chance couldn’t help but fix his terrified gaze on the stallion in front of him, he thought that one of the subordinates flanking the bad guy had disappeared. Retreated into the darkness, perhaps, or shifted to a different position. It wouldn’t matter, they were just playing with him at this point.
The unicorn who seemed to be in charge took a few steps closer. Chance retreated hastily, until one of the ponies behind shoved him roughly back into the center of the circle. He spun quickly, reorienting on the leader. This time, however, he was sure that there were at least two ponies missing from the group that had pursued him.
“You know what we do to ponies who run? Ponies who don’t submit?” The ugly unicorn grinned, most of his teeth black and rotten. “Ponies like your family?”
Chance’s lip quivered. His family, every member, had been slaughtered. He was the last. And now they were going to kill him, too.
There was a gentle swish, as if the wind had momentarily picked up. One of the stallions standing at the edge of the light abruptly vanished.
“Huh?” asked one of the others, only now seeming to realize that several of his fellows were missing. A second later, something unseen knocked him aside and out of the light. There was a startled gasp, but nothing more, not even a cry of pain.
“Form up,” ordered the leading unicorn. “Everypony get—”
A screech of pure agony echoed through the night as another pony vanished. There was the sickening crackle of breaking bones and something came flying out of the darkness and bowled over another one of the stallions standing in the light. He got up quickly, horrified eyes staring down at the mutilated remains of what had once been another outlaw. Then, darkness took him as well.
The scarred unicorn’s jaw was clenched as he turned quickly, trying to predict which direction the next attack would come from. His underlings crowded close, each trying to be closer to the center for protection. There were only two left now.
“Boss,” one of them gasped. “I don’t know—”
A shape blurred out of the darkness so quickly that none of them clearly saw what it was. It was no bigger than a pony, dark, bloody, and incredibly fast. The unicorn with the light tried to react, but was far too slow. With a whisper of wind, the unknown specter was gone again.
“Boss, what—”
The unicorn in charge crumpled to the ground, his throat slit to the spine. The light died with him.
Chance took off, running even harder than he had before. Wild terror kept his legs sprinting even after his instincts told him that he’d reached his limits. Two more screams started behind him before being suddenly cut off.
Already gasping for air, Chance tried to run harder but his legs failed him. He faltered and his momentum carried him to the ground and into a roll. Hard earth and harder stones beat his body. Trying to get up, he stumbled again and couldn’t keep his stability.
No! his mind screamed. Can’t stop! The world went hazy, a distorted, unreal feeling that grew darker. Chance struggled, but could do nothing to stop blackness from claiming him as he fell to the ground.
Time passed. Chance didn’t know how long. He drifted, not feeling, not thinking.
The gentle motion felt like a dream. Chance was relaxed. His legs were a little tired, but lying on his side with peaceful swaying beneath his body reminded him of some of his earliest memories, a careful rocking in his mother’s hooves. His mother—
Chance shot awake with a gasp, tumbling from his perch onto the ground.
“Oh my! Are you all right?” A magenta mare plated with steel armor turned from where he’d fallen off her back, lowering her head to him worriedly. She pushed her metal helmet back, exposing her face.
Chance swallowed, looking around in the light of day. The rocks and boulders looked familiar, but there was no sign of the place where he’d fallen the night before. This mare must have carried him quite a ways.
“I can see that you’re scared,” the mare drew close, touching his shoulder gently. “You’re lucky to be alive. I found you last night, passed out and all alone. What do you remember?”
“Raiders,” Chance managed to say. “They took my fam… everything.”
Seeing the tears welling in his eyes, she pulled him close, cradling his form softly between the plates of her armor. Even through his weeping, Chance could see how miraculously clean the steel was. Something else that struck him - she wasn’t carrying any visible weapons. Who was this mare? Didn’t she live in the wastes like everypony else?
“Come on,” she said softly. “Let’s keep going. I’ll take you somewhere safe.”
Chance wiped his eyes. He looked reluctantly in the direction he’d come, but there was nothing back there for him. Turning, he fell in step beside his rescuer.
“My name is Cheerilee,” she said, giving him a smile.
“Call me Chance,” he mumbled.
Cheerilee still looked at him with concern, but didn’t try to press anything more from Chance. He was grateful just for the company. He didn’t know this mare, but she seemed friendly. Even when he studied her closely, she exhibited no signs that there was something hostile on her mind. She didn’t keep a constant watch on him, just enough to know that he was all right.
Chance noticed that she seemed to be perfectly healthy. Astonishing, as he had never met a pony in the wasteland that was. What little of her body he could see beneath the polished armor bore no scars and seemed to be at least somewhat clean. Cheerilee looked around carefully to stay alert, but did not seem to exhibit any of the twitches or lapses that a crazy pony might.
The two of them walked for several minutes in silence. Cheerilee abruptly turned and slipped between two large boulders. Warily, Chance followed. There was an iron door set inconspicuously against a built up hillock. Cheerilee managed to open the solid iron door with little issue, holding it for Chance. He stepped in, and she let it close heavily behind them after entering herself.
As his eyes adjusted to the lack of light, Chance stared with wonder at the chamber before him. He realized where they must be: a stable. He’d never seen one of the underground shelters before, but there was no mistaking the giant cog shaped door resting near the matching opening. He’d heard stories of such places before.
Cheerilee smiled to Chance. “Welcome to The Orphanage. We take in lost souls from all over the wasteland. Come on, let’s get you inside.”
He still didn’t trust her completely, but the stable looked real enough. Past the cog, a long set of stairs led deep into the earth and there were the sounds of other ponies; muted hoofsteps, quiet conversations, tools being used.
As they started down, a face appeared from behind a pile of sandbags at the bottom of the stairs. “Cheerilee, is that you?”
“It certainly is,” Cheerilee replied. She gestured to Chance. “I found a colt, all alone. Some raiders were after him.”
“Heavens, let’s get you down here right now,” called the friendly voice. With a glance at Cheerilee, Chance reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped into the corridor, passing several other armored ponies like Cheerilee. All of them seemed to defer to her, apparently regarding the magenta mare as a respected superior.
Near the bottom of the stairs stood a rather jovial unicorn mare who was colored like vegetation - that is, if many green plants actually grew in the wastes. Her manner and attitude was more reminiscent of a rather portly happy-go-lucky pony, but it was not to be. Nopony could afford to be chubby in the wasteland, although like Cheerilee, and it seemed everypony else in the stable, this mare looked healthy. She introduced herself as Ghillie.
“We’ll get you taken care of,” she promised Chance. Ghillie glanced at Cheerilee, her tone shifting to more respectful and serious. “You were gone a while. Feel like a bite?”
Cheerilee shook her head. “No, I’m fine for now. I need to go talk to Halberd about raiders in the area.”
Ghillie nodded and turned to Chance. “How about you, kid? Hungry?”
“Oh yes.” Running for his life had put his mind on other things, but now Chance realized that he couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten. He followed the green mare down the corridor. The cafeteria they came to was not as grand as Chance’s dreams had imagined, but the food was quite real. It was not a buffet, but he was still extremely pleased with the amount served onto his plate.
Ghillie stayed with him, although Chance noticed that she didn’t come nearly as close as Cheerilee. He realized that he must look a mess. Most wastelanders did all the time, even if they hadn’t been running for their life all night.
“So, what is this place?” Chance asked between bites.
“Well, it’s a stable, though it wasn’t quite finished in time. Not really an official one either, just something that some rich pony had built for personal use before the megaspells hit.”
“Who built it?”
Ghillie shrugged. “It’s run as kind of a shelter now. I don’t know where Cheerilee keeps finding ponies that need help, but we’re always busy. The name, ‘The Orphanage,’ is sort of what we do. Ponies, who need help, ponies who have no one else to turn to, we take them in. We do tend to focus on the young or needy, as we can’t afford to take care of everypony. Then, when enough ponies come of age we send them out so they can find their own place in the world, though we try and give them everything they need to survive. Supposedly, some even go out to make the wasteland a little less dark. Of course, we try and keep some of the more experienced adults like Cheerilee around.”
“So Cheerilee is some kind of scout?” asked Chance. “That explains how she rescued me.”
“What? No.” Ghillie shook her head. “No, Cheerilee’s a teacher. She runs the education program here.”
Chance paused mid-bite. That might explain her lack of weapons, but... “Then what’s with the armor? And being all alone in raider country?”
Ghillie smiled, but in the way of somepony breaking bad news. “Cheerilee is a… special case. If you hang around long enough, maybe you’ll hear her story.”
Chance continued eating, not troubling her with more questions. He chose instead to look around at all the ponies. He had never been to an organized town before but figured it must be like this. Ponies wandering around, occasionally greeting each other or meeting to share a meal. A couple of foals ran by playing a game of tag. Everypony obviously had enough food for themselves and might have been lucky enough to have a water talisman because they all seemed to be somewhat clean.
But as he took another bite of some sort of mushroom munch his thoughts drifted back toward Cheerilee. He understood the need for secrets. In fact, he held more than a few. One of them was responsible for the raider attack on his family. He shuddered momentarily, just thinking about it. It was heartbreaking being unable to do anything while his family was murdered. Particularly because hindsight told him how it could have turned out differently.
Ghillie noticed. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Chance didn’t want anypony worrying, or indeed, thinking too much about him. He might have lost his family, and there was no way he would let any other ponies grow that close to him. He couldn’t risk anything happening to them, too.
“Well, you might feel fine but we should take you to the medical clinic anyway, just for a checkup.” Putting Chance’s empty plate away, Ghillie took him down the hallway. She introduced Cardio, a lanky unicorn stallion with a heart for a cutie mark, as the medical expert.
Cardio wore a friendly smile. “Hey there, Chance, is it? Let’s get you checked out.”
Chance had never before been to a formal checkup, mostly due to lack of access. Sure, he’d seen a few medical procedures performed before – one got very little entertainment in the wasteland – but the opportunity to keep track of his health was novel. These ponies in the stable really seemed to care.
He listened attentively as Cardio noted a few bruises and scrapes as a result of the chase through the rock farm. The stallion told Chance that he was a little undernourished for a growing colt. Also detected was some radiation poisoning from living in the wasteland, but there were drugs available to counter that.
“Drink this and you’ll feel better,” Cardio promised, giving Chance a strange mixture of medicine. True to his word, once Chance drank the foul orange-colored liquid, he did feel better. Better than he could remember, in fact. It was a crying injustice that he alone received such treatment, while his family—
Chance fought back tears and distracted himself by thanking Cardio. Just then, Cheerilee popped her head into the room. She’d shed her armor and Chance saw her fully.
Along with her magenta coat, her mane and tail were pink, complemented by her green eyes. Her cutie mark was yellow flowers with happy faces on them. She looked the part of an elementary school teacher for fillies and colts. Cheerilee spotted him. “Hello Chance, how are you?”
“Much better, Ms. Cheerilee.” He gave her a smile .
She smiled back, caring and warm. “I’m glad. Cardio, can I talk to you for a moment?”
While the two of them engaged in conversation, Ghillie escorted Chance to a dormitory. Despite lying passed out for most of the night, he could do with a long rest. Other young ponies were already tucked into the room’s beds for a good sleep.
“We’ll take care of you,” said Ghillie. “That’s a promise.”
“Thank you.” Chance had never expected anything like this to happen to him. He half expected it to be some cruel dream. Such compassion was not something he was used to or had even heard of. He wasn’t sure how to repay the dwellers of The Orphanage.
But he could think about it later. That bed looked so inviting.