//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Ashes to ashes // Story: Fallout Equestria: The Voice of the Wasteland // by shadowher //------------------------------// Ashes to Ashes Every story starts somewhere, and everyone has a story to tell... "It must be awesome being a unicorn..." My little sister said. "What did I tell you about sneaking up on me? And besides, aren't you supposed to be grounded?" I told her. "But it's so boring in my room! I'd rather watch you work than staring at the ceiling, can I stay? Pretty pleaseeeee?" I sighed. I was getting bored anyway "Fine but don't touch anything, if you do you'll wish you'd stayed in your room." I told her. My name is Spark Wonder. As you know thanks to my sister I'm a unicorn. I have a light-blue coat and a dark-blue mane. I have an open eye for a cutie mark, it means I have a talent for noticing small details. I live in the... I can't really call this a town, in the village Clarefield. Right now I'm at my store called Repair & Sell and we -you guessed it- repair the stuff the ponies break and sell the stuff my friend and I scavenge around the village. My sister's name is Bell. She is just a little filly, she doesn't even have a cutie mark yet. She is an earth pony with she has a light-blue coat just like me and her mane is bright red. She spends most of her time causing ruckus and making my life hell but when she is not doing that she is actually a good filly. "So... what are you working on right now?" I can't believe this she stayed silent for two whole minutes "It's a toaster, I'm not even sure I'll be able to repair it. It's like it was owned by hellhounds before Carrot brought it here..." "Where is Carrot by the way? I haven't seen her all day." "I think she is out trading with the merchant that came here a couple of days ago." As soon as I finished my sentence the door flew open and a orange mare with an yellow mane came storming in. "What's up everypony?! I’ve got great news for you." I rolled my eyes "Oh gee I can't wait to see what it is. I hope you brought more worthless stuff for me to repair" I said with as much sarcasm as I could. "Don't be silly Spark I always bring useful stuff!" I levitated the broken toaster in front of her, she didn't even look at it "Besides, this might actually help you with your work." "What do you mean?" Okay she got my attention. She then took something from her saddlebags and threw it at me and I barely catched it "Ta da!" "What is this...?" Then Bell squeaked "Oh my gosh! It's a PipBuck! Where did you find this?!" "The merchant had it, I just traded it for some of the stuff you repaired Spark. I was lucky he didn't really know what it was or he wouldn't have been willing to part with it." "Okay so... What's so great about this thing?" "It's just one of the greatest invention EVER! The most important functions of it are the Eyes Forward Sparkle or E.F.S. and the S.A.T.S. It also keeps track of your health and the items in your saddlebags. It has lots of memory for audio logs or notes and automatically makes a map of the area you're in. It starts ticking when you are near radiation. It can also tune into every radio frequency it reaches and it assists with repairs! Oh and it can glow and has a tag function that lets you know where other ponies with PipBucks are." "How do you know all of that?" "Well the Stable-dweller has one so I investigated and asked around and that's what I found out" Of course she did, she is obsessed with the stable-dweller she listens to every report from DJ-Pon3 just to hear news about her, and her other obsession with technology didn't help. "Right, so what do you say you put it on Spark?" Carrot said, Bell was looking at me with expectant eyes. "Sure, if it helps with work around why not?" So I putted in on my leg, just above the hoof and as soon as I did it started beeping and flashing "Wow, is it supposed to do that?" "I... I don't know, I guess?" I sighed and it just stoped flashing and beeping. "Well I'm glad that's over" Carrot said while cleaning the sweat off of her forehead "Hey, why don't you check how it work?" "Okay let's check it out" I then started messing with the buttons it had. I found the inventory manager and the repair assistant first so I decided to check them out. It's really useful so far, if I need an item I just look it up in here and then the PipBuck gets it to the top of my saddlebags. Then I found the E.F.S. function so I decided to activate it. "Woah!" It was surprising to suddenly see all this, I could see two green spots in a compass which I assume are Bell and Carrot, It also showed a warning that said 'You need to rest' as if I didn't know already. "What is it what happened?" Bell asked worried "Oh it's just the E.F.S. function, it was surprising seeing it." Okay let's keep checking, the S.A.T.S. function should be this one. All of a sudden time stopped and numbers appeared on Bell one for every part of her body but they all signaled 0%. How do I deactivate this? Then time went back to normal, I'm not sure how that works but at least I know what buttons not to press. But my curiosity got the better of me "Hey Bell what does S.A.T.S. do?" She got excited because she knew something no one else did, foals being foals I guess "S.A.T.S. stands for Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell it's supposed to help you during a fight but I'm not sure how. I guess that since it says Targeting Spell it helps you to aim or something." Clever filly. "Well nothing ever happens in this town so I guess you're not using that much, but we can go later and take care of some radroaches if you want. You know to try it." Carrot said with a sigh. She hates not doing anything which is why she and I sometimes go scavenge around the village. "Sure that would be awesome, now if I'm not wrong the only thing I haven’t tried is the radio" So I started looking for the radio and found that this thing had an audio log and a note I decided to check the audiolog first the voice of a mare came from it. "To whoever gets this, I don't think I have much time to leave so I'm just going to keep it simple. My name is Six Shot and I come from Stable 47. They did horrible things in that place. this stupid thing won't stop beeping no matter how far I get from the stable it just keep beeping and beeping and beeping and beeping it's so frustrating... Anyway this is a warning to anypony out there in the wasteland: Do not, I repeat do not, go near Stable 47, it must be a last resource to do this, but if you have to I must tell you: You won’t last long because of the monsters in there. I found out that they have a weakness to fire and, from accessing the Overmare files, I found the schematics for a blade that is on fire. I downloaded them into my PipBuck in case anypony needs it, I think the weapon is called: The Shishkebab. I hope whoever gets this has better luck in surviving the wasteland than I did... I should have listened to this in private, or at least when Bell wasn't around, she is very sensitive when it comes to the dead. "Do- Do you think she died?" Bell asked. "I don't know Bell, she might have survived though. Why don't we check the schematics for the Shishkebab? Who knows maybe we can build it here, imagine telling your friends that you have a Firey-Sword, they'll be so jealous!" To this she instantly jumped up and went to the back of the store in just a couple of seconds. When she got there she yelled "Spark what are you waiting for?! Come over here with that schematic!" I couldn't help but chuckle. "Do you mind taking care of the store for a while Carrot?" "Sure but don't take long, Dad got really mad the last time I stayed too long here." "You still haven't told him?" Typical of this mare, leaving everything to the last minute. "No, but I will! When the time comes..." I sighed "Fine but you should do it soon, and don't worry this shouldn't take long" I then went to the back of the store. --- "Awwww, what a bummer" Bell pouted. "Yeah it's a shame, I was looking forward to it too..." We didn't have all the stuff required for the Shishkebab it needed a pilot light, which we already had, a motorcycle gas tank and a hoofbrake, which we could get from any motorcycle, and a lawn mower blade, now that I didn't know where to find. "Say, how about we go scavenging tomorrow to see if we can find some of the materials. I know I saw a motorcycle in the junkyard not far from here." "Really? You'll let me go with you this time?" "Yes but only because is one of the safest places there are. If you behave I might let you have a BB gun." I said while stretching out the word might, it's not like she is going to behave. "Really?! Oh my oh my oh my I can't believe I'm going scavenging tomorrow" She started jumping around the room dropping down some of the stuff. I just gave her a look and she said: "Hehe... Sorry, I'll behave I promise!" Suddenly I heard the front door slam open, and not the way Carrot does it, this was like someone was angry at the door and just bucked it so it could open "I got a bad feeling, Bell stay here and don't make any noise" She just nodded and did as I said, as I headed to the main part of the store I heard a loud Bang!. There was only one thing that could make that sound, and I only had one thought in my head: Carrot I dashed the rest of the way while taking my gun out of it's sheath. Before opening the door I tried to took a peek and felt relief as I saw Carrot, she was in the ground with blood coming out of her leg but she was alive. Then I saw other three ponies but looking at their armor I noticed that they were raiders. What should I do, if I go out they'll kill Carrot, but if I don't they'll take her prisoner or they might kill her anyway. I decided to do the only thing that would give me time. "Everypony wait! I surrender!" "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" One of them said "Tried to sneak up on us and realized it was a bad idea didn't you?" "Please take anything you want and just leave, we don't want any trouble." "You don't want trouble? Let me tell you something kid, this is the wasteland, everywhere you go there IS trouble" another pony raider said, now that I could see the whole store I saw that there were 5 raiders in here, I’m glad I didn't fight I wouldn't have been able to save Carrot that way. "And besides, it's not like we need your permission to take this," This third pony raider, everyone looked at her when she spoke and her armor looks better than the others. I guess she is their leader, that is if raiders have leaders. I have to keep them talking to make some time, someone must have heard the gunshot and should be coming to investigate. "Yeah the Red Army doesn't take orders from nopony you hear? We do what we want, when we want!" Then another raider said talking to their 'lider' "Sapphire do you think we should take this?" "The Red Army?" I said while looking at Carrot, it seems she is unconscious. "You've never heard of us? We're the biggest group of raiders in the whole wasteland!" I haven't heard of such a group and I wasn't interested in them at all, but I had to make some time. Not for a second have they stopped looting and raiders aren't know for just taking what they want and leaving ponies alive. I then saw something through the front door, the shape of a pony with a weird hat. I don't think the raiders have noticed it yet, I must move fast if I want to save Carrot. I used my magic to make a ‘Pop’ sound at the corner of the store, making all the raiders look in that direction. I then attacked the raider closer to Carrot, he never saw it coming and I managed to knock him out in one hit. Then I wraped Carrot in my magic and got us to the back of the store while screaming: "Raiders!" as loud as I could. Just as I finished taking cover behind the wall guns started firing through the door and another door slammed open while I heard some gunshots, but these were from a different gun, the sheriff of Clarefield was here. But there were five raiders in there, even with the element of surprise he can't take them out on his own. After putting Carrot in a safe place I take out my revolver from my saddlebags and open the door. I immediately think of my PipBuck and it's S.A.T.S. function so I activate it. I see that three raiders are still standing and taking cover behind different places. I aim for the head of the pony behind the counter and see that it has a 95% hit chance, I imagine it's because of how close he is because I don't have much training in guns. Still I select to fire twice at his head, then change targets to the mare that was taking cover behind a closet and aim for the head again but this time the hit chance is 40% so I decide to try and fire three times, but when I try to select the third time a warning appears and says 'Not enough Action Points' so I decide to go with it. Time goes on normally again but I feel different, I take aim at the pony that's the closest and shoot. The first shot got through his ear but didn't kill him, but the second went between his eyes. Then I aimed for the second pony I tagged and shoot twice, the first shot from my revolver got him but the second one failed. I see the sheriff going for cover behind the wall and I dive to get behind the counter. I only have one bullet left in my revolver so I reload and go up to take aim again. There are still two pony raiders, one injured and the other behind cover. The raider behind cover then gets out to fire at me with an automatic gun but thankfully the counter provided enough cover. I notice that the mare is the one with the heaviest armor, their leader. Once the shooting had stopped I heard the sound of the sheriff's gun firing again, I try to follow up with him and get up from my cover, to find a shotgun floating in front of me. The raider I injured was a unicorn and was now aiming at my face. Then I hear a gunshot but it didn't come from the shotgun it came from behind me. Carrot was now conscious and was standing in the back door, she had shot the unicorn raider before he could blow my face off. Now there were three of us and only one raider, but this one had an automatic gun, the strongest armor and she had somehow found a place that covered all her sides. Even if we did manage to get her she could easily kill one of us. So I did what I could and tried to talk my way out of it. "You're outnumbered and in a bad position, surrender now and we won’t hurt you!" Sadly her answer was not what I expected. "Like hell! This is untill one of us drops death!" She then came out of cover and started firing, one of the bullets went through my leg and I screamed in pain, I could hear her grin, but then another gun fired and the mare dropped death with a hole in her head. If I'm not wrong that was it, but I'm very careful when I check the bodies. “They're all dead.” "Looks like that's it," The sheriff said while looking at the bodies of the raiders. The brown pony with a short black mane then looked at Carrot and me his eyes widening by the second. "Carrot what are you doing here?! You were supposed to come back home once you finished scavenging! You could have died here!" "I'm okay dad, they only got a lucky shot because they surprised me. A health potion and I will be fine." "No you won't you must go with a doctor to get that bullet out of your body before you can get a health potion." The sheriff answered. "Fine I will. How did they get so far into Clarefield anyway? How comes nopony noticed they were raiders?" "Well ever since the incident of what happened to the Stable-Dweller we are very careful of not just shooting at somepony with raider armor. And since they didn't shoot first we assumed they had escaped from some raiders and got their armor." He said with some regret. He must be blaming himself for the raiders who shot his daughter. "Hey look, it's not your fault this happened. Your intentions were good and nopony blames you for this." I said and then remembered that we were not the only ponies in here. I went as fast as I could to the back of the store "Bell! Bell are you okay?!" "Yes I'm fine I did just as you asked and sta- You're bleeding!" "Don't worry I'm sure it's going to be okay the bullet went through so I should be okay with some bandages and a bit of time, a health potion would speed it up but I don't think it's necessary." "If you say so... There were so many gunshots I was so worried" She had tears in her eyes as she said this, I put my leg around her and pulled her closer for a hug. "Don't worry, everything is okay now, everypony is okay and the bad guys are gone." Once she calmed down a little I told her: "Hey, this thing, the PipBuck, helped me a lot back there. I think I'm going to keep it and you know what? We still haven't checked the radio. What do you say we check it right now?" She nodded and I started to look for the radio, it had two frequencies right now, I checked the first one and it was the regular music we heard everyday, it didn't seem like DJ-Pon3 was going to talk anytime soon so I changed to the other frequency out of curiosity. We heard a pony trying to communicate with another pony "Come in Saphire, come in Sapphire, god damn it Sapphire answer the radio." Then a different voice said something that froze me in place "Something is wrong, send another team to Clarefield to check on her, give them orders to shoot on sight. --- "Everypony listen" The sheriff was talking to all the ponies who lived in Clarefield, we were going to need all the help we could get. I had already explained the situation to the sheriff and he quickly got all the ponies gathered in one building. It wasn't that hard considering how small this place is. "There is a gang of raiders coming to Clarefield, and we need everypony to cooperate if we want to survive this." The crowd was getting out of control. All the time I've been here there's never been to much to worry about, the place is so isolated that not even raiders come around. "I'm not going to force you to fight the raiders, I'll only take volunteers for this but if you want to save this town, if you want to protect any family you have or if you want to kick some raider flank, talk to me and we'll give you a weapon and some armor. The more ponies who volunteer the higher the chances of getting out of this alive. This is the plan: We will gather together in the biggest building we have, that is this very building, and we'll have snipers positioned on the roof and some windows. Foals and those who don't want to fight will be in the basement behind a barricaded door in case we have to evacuate and we will fill the entrance with mines. We'll take all of them out as fast as we can and with luck they won’t reach the building, but prepare for the worst..." And with that everypony started doing their part, the volunteers got taught how to use the sniper properly, and everypony else started to plant the mines and barricade themselves in another building. "Bell, listen to me, everything is going to be ok. We are going to take care of the bad guys and then we can go scavenging tomorrow okay?" She was scared but she managed to nod "I want you to stay with everypony else, don't leave unless it's an emergency and always stay with somepony else," She nodded again "Why don't you practice that song you heard on the radio the other day?" She nodded for the third time, I know somepony might hear her singing but with all the gunfire and with a bit of luck they might not pay attention. Before I could leave to take my sniping position she said "I love you Spark, please come back." "I love you too Bell, I'll be back before you notice I'm gone." Then I saw Carrot. "Hey, you okay there?" "No I'm not okay! My father won't let me join the fight, he says I'm injured and that I should stay with the foals!" "Well you did get shot, you know?" "So did you and my father doesn't have a problem with you entering the fight" That's because he hates me, but I don't say that instead I say: "Look, I'm glad you're not joining the fight directly, that way I can ask a favor, could you please take care of Bell?" She looked at my trying to protest for not supporting her, but I just stare at her and she sighed "Okay, but you have to come back, that little filly needs you." "I know, and don't worry, I don't plan on diying anytime soon." With that I then started going upstairs to the floor I was going to snipe from, but before I could leave Carrot whispered to herself. "Since when does a plan work in the wasteland?" --- I'm alone on the 4th floor while checking out the window for raiders. 2 hours had passed before I saw the first sign of life. It was a group of at least 20 ponies, I'm sure they were raiders but I was curious as to see what they were going to do... it surprised me when they ignored every building but mine, and when they came in I remembered something: The bodies were still there, but how did they know? Did they even know the bodies were there? But then they came out and started going all around town, I took aim and was ready to take the shot... Bang! I didn't fire, it was another pony from an upper floor, his shot killed the raider, but now the others were running for cover. All of us shooted at them but with the little experience we have in guns we only managed to kill 4 of them. I saw one of them getting out of cover and pointed his hoof at this building direction. I went into S.A.T.S. and saw a 40% hit chance but I took the shoot anyway. The shot had went right through his chest and he was death, but they now knew where we were and started running towards us. I then sprinted as fast as I could for the basement but when I was in the 2nd floor I heard a loud explosion and knew that the mines had exploded. I heard hoofsteps on the upper floors and I knew the raiders had too. So I took out my revolver and shot twice in the raiders direction, and started running taking as much turns as I could. I could hear the shooting behind me and I knew they were coming following me, so I took another turn and hid but this hall was a dead end and they would find me soon,. So when the three raiders started looking for me I used my magic to make a noise in the wrong direction and all the raiders turned. I used this chance to get out of my hiding spot and turned on S.A.T.S. they were all close so they all had a 95% hit chance, still I tried to fire twice at the one that was in front of them, just in case. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! I got them all with a single bullet each, the 4th shot came from behind me. The shot bounced in my armor so it didn't penetrate but it still hurt like hell. I tried turning while shooting but my other 2 shots missed, but as I tried to reload the pony raider tackled me and we both fell to the floor. I tried pulling him off but he was bigger and stronger. He had put his hoof on my throat and I could feel my consciousness fading, I thought: So this is where I die, I couldn't defend the town, I couldn't help you Bell... I hope you managed to escape...' But then I heard a loud scream, the scream of a filly Bell!' And I kicked the stallion in the stomach getting the air out of him, I could barely recover myself before he was throwing himself at me again. I dodged it barely but he was coming for me again, and this time I couldn't dodge it but I saw something that could help me: A pipe that had fallen from the ceiling. I wrapped it in my magic and used it to hit the raider's head multiple times. 1 hit, he let me go 2 hits. 3 hits, he was now on the floor. 4 hits. 5 hits. 6 hits, he wasn't moving anymore but I didn't stop until I had reached the 14th hit, by then his head didn't look like that of a pony. Another scream could be heard in the whole village and I ran as fast as I could to the place where Bell and Carrot would be. I took the pipe with me it might be useful. When I reached the entrance I was shocked by what I saw, parts of the ponies who had stepped on the mines were everywhere and there were ponies both raiders and villagers, with so many holes no one could recognize them. But one of them caught my eye: the sheriff was death in front of the place where the barricade should be, he died protecting Bell, I wanted to stop and mourn but Bell was in danger and I had to save her. I went to the place where the ponies barricaded themselves in, there were a few corpses but none of them were Bell or Carrot so I stormed through the back door. I felt the heat instantly, the whole village was in fire and I could hear screams everywhere, I must find Bell and Carrot. I runned through the burning village, I didn't saw any raider but I knew they were still here, then I heard another scream, but this one was a familiar voice "Bell!" I ran in the direction I had heard the scream and I saw Bell, with 2 raiders closing in on her. I instantly switched into S.A.T.S and killed both of them and then ran to where Bell was. "Bell! Are you okay?! Did they hurt you?!" She was crying and couldn't answer me but she aimed a hoof at a pile of debri. Except it wasn't a pile of debris, it was Carrot. She had been shot multiple times and was dead. She had also died protecting Bell. "Bell, come on we must go, hop on my back it'll be faster." Before she could answer I had grabbed her with my magic and put her there. I ran as fast as I could, to get out of Clarefield. There were a lot of raiders here and every scream made Bell tremble more. The smoke from the fire wasn't helping at all I could barely see where I was going, but then I reached the border of the village. For the first time I was glad it was a small place, but I didn't stop there, I kept on running and running until I couldn't run anymore and tripped over. Even with my heavy breathing I managed to say "Bell, Bell are you okay?" But she didn’t answer she had breathed too much smoke. Then I heard hoofsteps, a lot of them it was the raiders. How did they find me? I didn't hear anypony coming after us!' I tried shooting at them but I couldn't even lift my revolver with my magic, I was too weak, and then I passed out. Footnote: Spark Wonder Strength: 7 Perception: 6 Endurance: 5 Charisma: 3 Intelligence: 8 Agility: 7 Luck: 4 Tagged skills: Repair, Melee, Sneak. Quest Perk: Special Talent: You were born with the ability to notice small details, and you have a Cutie Mark to prove it, you gain +2 in perception when outside of combat. (Author's Note: I wanted to thank Kkat for making such an awesome fic and everyone reading this fic, I also would like to thank the whole FoE community just for being so awesome.)