//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: To be an Immortal 
// by Lunafan1k 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 1


Ember Storm awoke with a start, orange fur soaked in a cold sweat. It was that dream again, always that same dream with the strange beings and the strange, impossible creature referred to as a human. ‘Why can’t I dream about a lovely mare for once? Just once?’ He asked himself.

Shakily getting to his hooves, he looked around at his surroundings, looking over the caravan’s various wagons he had been traveling with since before he can remember. It was still early in the morning, the sun just peaking over the far horizon. Irritated, he went about his morning routine. He had hoped to get a little more sleep than he had gotten because he was on the late watch only getting a few hours, filled with images he never understood.

Some of the elders of the caravan did not wish for him to take part in the guard watches, fearing he would be too young and would simply place himself in danger. Normally this would be true, as he was just turning his first year into adulthood. But they held their tongues after witnessing Ember run out in the middle of a surprise attack several years ago as a colt and summon giant flames, engulfing the enemies and leaving the caravan and its travelers untouched, earning his cutie mark - a horseshoe in a ring of fire. Such magical prowess and control led him to become an apprentice to the Head Enchantress of the group, where he learned to further control and increase his power.

Using his telekinesis, he began to style his mane, deep red at the base and fading into an angry yellow at the ends. Their was no reason to style it, other than the fact that it looked cool to make it look like his hair was itself fire, instead of a tangled mess of red and yellow.

Finished with his morning routine, he trotted over to the chefs wagon in hopes of an early breakfast of 200 year old pre-war food and maybe a few radroaches. Luckily the chef, Barb Ecue, was just finishing the first batch of radroach stew.

“Morning.” Ember yawned.

“Morning to you too sunshine, isn’t it a bit early to be up and about? I know you had the late watch, I have the watch bill posted here so others can check when they get their meals.” He said, motioning to a list of names, times, and locations, “Can never be too careful I always say, that bill changes at the most inconvenient of times.”

“Yea tell me about it.” Ember mumbled, trying to shrug off the impending long winded conversation. Quickly, he glanced behind Barb and noticed the stew simmering in the corner of the wagon. “Could I just get a bowl of stew, I’m not really that hungry.”

“Well, its not quite time for breakfast, but I don’t see the harm of an early start.” Barb said, pouring a decent portion into a clay bowl for Ember.

Ember took the bowl and sat down at one of the many tables strewn out in front of Barb’s wagon, forming a makeshift messing area. Ember watched the sun slowly rising over the horizon, absentmindedly eating his soup, all thoughts on the strange re-accruing dream. ‘What does it mean?’ Ember thought, ‘Probably nothing. When has a dream meant anything anyway? Oh yea, the dream of making peace in the war by making powerful megaspells and giving them to both sides. Yea that worked out superbly.’ Ember mused.

*CRASH!*

Ember nearly jumped out of his skin as a mare with blue fur and purple mane, Kaleen, dropped her trey of food onto the table.

“OH! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you!” She said, trying and failing to stifle a laugh. Not like it mattered, others including Barb had seen and were rolling around in fits of laughter.

After a few minutes everyone had calmed down, some still giggling, and resumed their morning routines. Ember and Kaleen talked about their plans for that day, Kaleen was wanting to re-stitch some holes in her garments and clean a few wagons. Ember had plans to get some final training from his master and move from being an apprentice to a journeyman.

Finished with their food, they noticed more and more ponies lining up for breakfast, so they returned their empty trays and walked together back to the center of camp.

Most of the caravan was still sound asleep when the first explosion rocked the early morning, sending Ember and Kaleen flying several feet through the air. Ember’s surroundings erupted into chaos, half the caravan on fire, while the fleeing colts, mares, and fillies were ruthlessly gunned down. It only took a split second to figure out just what was happening.

Raiders! An entire army it seemed was coming from all sides in an attempt to overtake and kill everyone! Without another thought Ember jumped up and began firing homing fireballs at the nearest enemies, making them burst into flames on contact. Ember smiled a small smile as the three raiders before him ran around in a mad search for non-existent water, their flesh beginning to boil off their bodies before collapsing in a dead heap of burning meat.

“I have to check my family! They have to be safe!” Kaleen screamed, running in the direction of her family’s wagon. Ember could do nothing but watch her go, disappearing behind another wagon engulfed in flames.

Redirecting his attention to the perimeter of the caravan, Ember planted his feet firmly into the ground, squeezing his eyes shut in immense concentration, feeling the massive well of energy deep inside himself. His horn began to glow a deep, angry red. Ember grunted and strained, an overglow appearing around his horn, followed my a second. Soon sparks began popping off the tip.

Having reached critical mass for the spell, Ember unleashed the magic, summoning a twenty foot high wall of flames around the caravan, preventing any more raiders from entering. He could only sustain it a few minutes at most before collapsing completely exhausted.

Taking this as their chance, the remaining warriors of the caravan rallied themselves and began to first slaughter the remaining raiders inside the ring of fire, then the snipers on top of the wagons began picking off the remaining forces on the other side.

Ember watched with pride as his master began summoning streams of water to help put out the fires spreading to the other wagons.

Just when victory was within their hooves, a lone figure strolled through Ember’s defensive firewall, dispelling it completely. Dumbstruck, Ember tried to get a better look at the creature that so effortlessly dispelled his mighty flames.

“No… It couldn't be…” Ember whispered to himself in horror. He had heard stories of ponies with both wings and unicorn horn wielding immense power from the traders and the various towns they came across, but he thought they were all tall tales meant to scare travelers from traveling.

Ember watched in terror as the alicorn encased its body in an impenetrable force field that shrugged off the attacks of the caravan with absolute ease. If Ember didn’t know any better he would say that the alicorn looked board as it effortlessly blasted beams of pure magic energy, vaporizing the ponies that were struck.

Ember watched in horror as his master approached the creature encased in a shield of her own. He knew her shield was impossible to break, during their training lessons he used his most powerful attacks to break it, yet it was always unyielding. He noticed something different about this shield, it was thicker! She had been going easy on him! This stronger shield should surly hold off the alicorn’s attacks while the others fled to safety.

The alicorn noticed this, and approached the master enchantress. “My my, what have we here? A hero?” The alicorn laughed evilly, chilling Ember to the bone.

“You’ll never harm another as long as I still stand!” Roared the enchantress, attacking the alicorn with some energy beams of her own, bouncing weakly off the alicorn’s shield.

“A pitiful attempt. We could have used you, either your skills or your body! You will perish for your insolence!” The alicorn reared up, then blasted a mighty ball of energy at the enchantress, her shield holding for a split second before shattering like glass. The energy turned the enchantress to ash in an instant, leaving nothing but a ten foot crater where she once stood.

Ember had been watching this turn of events as he helped evacuate the last of the ponies of the caravan. Until this point he had been worried about Kaleen, having not seen her or her family since everything started.

After seeing his master fall, he felt something deep inside himself snap. An aura of fiery energy erupted from his body, encasing him in a massive fireball, melting the dirt to glass and vaporizing a raider that got too close. His eyes were glowing with deep red energy, and his body was floating a foot from the ground. His mane and tail had actually become flames and were at least twice the size of his body, beginning to resemble like molten lava itself.

“YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!” Ember Storm roared, no longer in control as the magic overtook him.

The alicorn’s eyes grew wide in astonishment as Ember approached. It shot an energy blast at Ember, but it simply became fire and made Ember stronger. Ember retaliated with an attack of his own, a massive blast of fire and lava like that of a volcano engulfed the alicorn. The alicorn was forced to redirect all its attention to the barrier, so powerful was the blast.

Just when the alicorn’s shield was about to break and let the flames consume the alicorn, the massive amount of energy began to flux, the resulting explosion threw an unconscious Ember back into the side of one of the wagons, leaving him to his fate.

******

*BUMP*

Consciousness slowly returning to Ember, he realized he was moving. ‘Someone must have thought it rude to wake me and put me in my trailer when we left’ Ember thought. Realization of what happened suddenly flared through his mind as the pain from his ordeal made itself known.

Ember quickly stood, fury burning in his eyes, ready to give it his all to protect his people, only to throw up from the dizziness. Looking around he saw that three captives were in the cage, himself, the elder of the caravan, and a young mare, no older than Ember was.

“What happened?” Ember asked the elder.

“Red Eye. Thats what happened young one. That was his slaver army that attacked us, not only for our supplies but to recruit as well.” The elder Daisy Blue said.

“But what happened to the others? Why was I spared?” Ember asked, dismayed.

“The others were ordered to surrender, some did but the many who refused were hunted down and killed. They said they needed you and I, to what end I do not know.” Elder Daisy said.

“I’ll tell you…” The black coated unicorn mare, with an equally dark mane and target cutie mark spoke up, “Its a talent hunt. They want to recruit us to join their ranks, make them stronger. Sell us of for profit or to work for them. My name is Acura Night.”

“Acura Night!?” Ember exclaimed.

“Heard of me have you? It seems my reputation was my downfall.”

“You don’t travel as much as I have without hearing about the best sniper and all around weapons expert on this side of the Wastelands. So I take it they want you for your gunslinger and maintenance skills, right? That still doesn’t explain why they said they needed the Elder or myself.”

“Young one, you have more magical power and potential than I have seen or heard of since Princess Celestia’s personal student 250 years ago, a Miss Twilight Sparkle if I recall correctly. I proudly watched as you almost destroyed that alicorn creature.”

“What about Kaleen, did she and her family make it out ok?” Ember begged the Elder.

“Child, I can only hope they were among the few to surrender.” The Elder responded dejectedly.

The wagon gave a quick lurch, “Shut the fuck up, or I will cut out your tongues and rip out your eyes!” ordered a nearby slaver.

Not wanting to be mutilated at such a young age, silence quickly ensued.

After traveling in silence for what seemed like hours, Ember began to devise an escape plan. If he could take out the raiders in close proximity, melt the bars with his fire, then use a cloud of smoke to blind the others the survivors of the caravan just might escape.

Preparing the magic he needed, he saw Acura slightly shake her head, a pleading look in her eyes. She might be content to wait until it was too late, but Ember was having none of that!

He realized his mistake as soon as he began to unleash the magic. Instead going through the bars to incinerate the raiders, the magic was reversed and blasted back onto himself. ‘Damnit! Should have known this shit was enchanted! How else did they plan on escorting two unicorns across the countryside without some kind of control measure?’

Sitting back up he heard the insane laughter of the slaver ponies. “Its no use you little shit! Your trapped their until we let you out or kill you!” They jeered.

‘Well that put a damper on the escape plan’ Ember thought. With a sigh Ember gazed at the grey clouds that made up the sky on the wasteland, hoping for a glimpse of the sun before his ultimate fate.

******

The cage suddenly came to a halt in the middle of what looked like a small village, the doors were thrown open and several slaver ponies began beating the caged ponies with clubs and whips while dragging them out to the ground where they lay curled into a ball in an effort to protect themselves.

“Grab the hag!” The Elder screamed and fought to no avail against the stronger slaver ponies. “We need the others to learn what happens if they ever decide to cross us, and your going to be the teacher!”

The slavers around Ember and Acura whooped and cheered, while two more pinned the two young unicorns to the ground, forcing them to watch as the elder was pinned up against the wall of a building by two earth pony slavers, then a third slaver unicorn mare approached menacingly.

The unicorn first floated up a nine inch rusted steel pike covered in dried blood along with a massive hammer, and drove the pike through the right foreleg, just below the elbow.

Ember wanted to cover his eyes and ears, but try as he might he couldn't help but watch in horror as the Elder withered in pain, screaming in a pitch she hasn't managed since she was a young filly, blood slowly running down the wall, tears of pain and terror flowing from her old eyes.

As the cries of pain began to die away, another pike was floated up, and again driven into a foreleg, this time the felt, earning a fresh bout of screams from the elder. The slavers were dancing around and yelling, cheering, wanting more, begging for blood. Some began pulling out daggers and knives, most of which covered in dried blood and in very poor condition, thrusting them into the air with a roar of malice.

With a wicked smile and a bark of insane laughter, the unicorn levitated a third pike, this one glowing red hot, on the verge of becoming molten. The unicorn, instead of making it quick with the hammer, slowly forced the pike through the right hind leg at about mid thigh. The elder, in her immense pain from the torture lost control of her bowls, earning a gleeful look from the unicorn as she twisted and turned the pike, making it as painful as possible. The flesh was melting and flash fusing to the pike, only to be ripped off as the pike was twisted. The surrounding fur had caught fire and the blood was being boiled into steam.

The unicorn stepped back to admire her work. She noticed that the old mare she was torturing had lost consciousness. “Bring her back! Im not finished with her yet!” She ordered, then the two stallions that previously pinned the elder to the wall departed, and returned with a syringe of adrenalin  and the other with wires connected to a battery.

The first stallion stabbed the syringe through the ribcage and pumped the adrenalin directly into the elder’s heart, then the second zapped her with the battery, bringing the elder back to full alertness.

“Glad to have you back, now we can continue.” The unicorn mare said ominously. Then attached a meat hook to a chain, which Ember followed with his eyes in dread to a mechanical wench.  The unicorn stabbed the hook into the left hind leg, just above the hoof. She then used her magic to operate the wench, slowly taking the slack out of the chain. As the chain pulled tighter it lifted the leg, bending it to point parallel to the ground.

The crowd was silent in anticipation, for this part was their favorite. The Elder began to scream again as the leg was slowly pulled from the hip. With a loud pop the leg was dislocated, forcing the mare to scream harder, unable to retreat into unconsciousness from the adrenalin. Then slowly the muscles and tendons ripped and tore, before the entire leg was ripped off the torso, blood flowing onto the ground freely.

The unicorn mare, her job done, stepped aside as the other slavers rushed up to slice open the Elder, throwing her organs into a pile, strewing the intestines in a festive manner. A random slaver plucked the eyes from the elders skull while another ate the heart from her chest.

After the “festivities” a pale Ember and Acura were dragged to and thrown into another cage full of moldy hay and stained in blood for the remainder of the evening.

******

‘Wait, how are you planning to get there? I know you like a flashy entrance but I impel you to not go over the top. The forests on the planet of Kalimora are still blazing from the volcano you formed after your last dramatic entrance through the surface of the planet.’

That dream again, Ember realized with a sudden alertness. It was night and he didn’t remember when or how he had fallen asleep after what he was forced to watch. A quick look around told him Acura was still awake, also unable to sleep. She looked like she was still in shock, so he went and sat next to her, warping her in a loose comforting hug as she began to cry in silence.

Ember took this time to analyze why he wasn’t shaken as bad as the mare he comforted. ‘Why was she in more emotional pain than him, when the elder had been like his family?’ He thought. ‘What happened to Kaleen? Was she alright?’ Ember has yet to attempt to locate Kaleen, yet somehow he knew everything was going to turn out alright. That dream somehow made him feel comforted, like all was not lost, and gave him hope.

His ears suddenly perked up, hearing a faint noise he couldn't quite pin down. Looking around he saw nothing but the gloom of the slaver camp and the still warm mutilated carcass of his elder. The noise grew louder, and looking towards the sky he saw the clouds part around a gigantic ball of flames, like the sun itself was falling.

It didn’t take long for the slavers to notice as well, some beginning to panic as others set up defensive positions along the edge of the camp. The fireball impacted 300 feet away with a ground shattering explosion, forcing many slavers to seek immediate cover from the incoming debris.

Slowly the dust began to settle. Coughing to clear his throat of the dust, he tried to see through his watery eyes just what happened. He couldn't see anything at the moment, but soon there was movement.

“Who could survive such an explosion?” Acura whispered, earning a shake of Ember’s head in response, still trying to get a glimpse of the figure. The slavers noticed it as well and readied to open fire should the figure be hostile, or if they could capture and sell it to the highest bidder.

“Oh...no…. i-it can’t… c-can’t be… thats impossible…” Ember whispered in disbelief.

Acura looked at him in confusion, “What, you know what that is?”

“HELLO! How are you all doing tonight!?” Called Ethstar.