//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Fallout Equestria: The Rangers // by Tytan //------------------------------// Prologue ““Hello! My name is Scootaloo. You probably know me (since I am pretty famous) for my awesome performances at events like last year’s GALLoPS, or maybe just as the founder of Red Racer. Not that it probably matters any more… Anyways have you ever thought about what makes a pony good? And I don’t mean how they act good, because that’s easy; don’t cut in line, don’t interrupt, put down the seat when you’re done. I mean what actually makes them good. What makes a pony feel the need to go out of her way to help somepony else? Is it how they were raised, is there a ‘good’ gene that controls whether or not you’re a flankhole, or is it something else entirely? That’s the question you are going to help us answer. Stable 33 was built to house 1000 of Equestrias best ponies. We at Stable-Tec have decided that the best way to get the very best ponies was to pick them from the places they were most likely to be good. 250 doctors, 250 cops, and 250 soldiers were randomly selected from their ranks. The final 250 were randomly selected families screened with an experimental morality detection spell. Every single one of you adds up to be the sum total of the best ponykind has to offer. Not only is this stable your second chance, it’s the second chance for all of ponykind, please don't waste it.” My dad once told me the story of when our ancestors first sealed the stable doors. In the beginning the four factions had separated themselves from one another, but it didn't take long for the lines between the four groups to fade and form the blocs. The police became the security bloc, the doctors became the medical bloc in charge of the clinic, and the randoms did everything else, officially becoming the support bloc. Anypony could work for any of the other blocs as long as they were qualified. Of course the military stayed the military. You don’t just dissolve an institution like the military; that would be like leveling a mountain named after the royal sisters so you could build a parking lot for a restaurant that caters exclusively to cannibals. But it did shrink with lack of use. That is until about a decade ago. The council, a select group of representatives from each of the blocs, decided to unseal the stable and to create the Rangers. The Rangers were going to be Stable 33's first step into the outside world, part ambassador part commando unit. They also decided that it would be appropriate if the Ranger program was handled by the military, and just like that we went from a total twenty volunteers to over a hundred. I guess some ponies can get a little stir crazy after nearly two centuries of concrete walls and fluorescent lighting, and what better way to alleviate the monotony than to go above ground. My reasons for joining were a little nobler; I was one of twenty I mentioned earlier. We were the ones who truly believed in keeping the stable safe. That or we were looking for the easiest job in the entire stable. But I assure you that I was among the former. I joined the day after I got my cutie mark because I wanted to be able to protect my family if we were ever attacked. What I didn't realize at the time was that if we hadn't been attacked before then it was pretty unlikely we would be ever attacked. And if we were attacked then whoever was attacking would have to make their way through a meter of stable door. I guess I got pretty lucky when the council decided to unseal the stable. Because I was one of the few who was a soldier before the decision was handed down I was assigned my own squad to command. In the interest of equality the council made sure that each squad consisted of four ponies, one from each bloc. Our representative from the support bloc was Impact Crater, a runty little earth pony with a gray coat, a fiery yellow mane, and an explosion on her flank. Despite the fact that she was more than old enough to have her cutie mark she was still only slightly larger than the average foal. That fact earned her the nickname Imp (get it?), and in her short time (pun only slightly intended) of working for the support bloc she had garnered a reputation for her skill with technology and her extreme ingenuity. The story goes that when she arrived for her first day of work she wasn’t strong enough to carry the standard issue tool belt, but the next day she showed up wearing a a jury-rigged medical exoskeleton that she’d ‘borrowed’ from the clinic and started carrying steel girders for a collapsed tunnel all on her own. If you’re having trouble picturing what it looked like then imagine a suit of Steel Ranger armor, strip away all the armor plating and the helmet, and you have something that kind of resembles Imp’s exo. After joining the military she discovered her affinity for big guns. You should have seen the look on her face when she saw the 25mm grenade machine gun, I was convinced that if she'd never had sex before I was pretty sure she was going to try it with that gun(In retrospect that sounds really creepy). She spent the next week rigging it up to a special battle saddle that would attach to her exo and inventing new kinds of ammo for it. Representing the medical bloc was Trauma Bandage. He was the single biggest unicorn I'd ever seen. He was at least a head taller than I was and had a pearly white coat, a blood red mane, and a cutie mark that looked like two red bandages that formed a cross. Other than that I don't know much else. Let's just say he's not much of a talker. The only other thing I knew about him I'd learned from his sister was that he used to be a trauma surgeon. He refused to carry a gun at first, I later convinced him to carry a sidearm, but he did take a shine to a force multiplying hammer that Imp showed him. The hammer strongly resembled the axle rod of an earth pony wagon with a high-tech coffee can shaped device on the end. Imp later told me the hammer head had a force talisman in the middle that took the kinetic energy of a swing and multiplied it. I could only imagine the damage that could be done with it if Trauma used his magic to swing it instead of his mouth. It probably wasn't a coincidence that our representative from security was Traumas twin sister, Pin Point. At first glance it’s pretty obvious Trauma was the only one to inherit the ’goddam-big’ gene; she was a little bit shorter than I was. Her long mane looks like it's forest green, but apparently before she'd dyed it that color it was the same color red as her brothers. Apparently she'd gotten sick of other ponies saying how much she looked like her more successful brother. Her cutie mark was a little of odd. It looked like a single black dot, she told me she got it when she got three double bullseyes in a row when she was playing darts in the rec-room with her dad. Until the announcement of the Ranger program her job amounted to a stable beat cop. She’d patrol the corridors and keep an eye out for trouble, but in a stable of what was supposed to be the most moral ponies in all of Equestria trouble usually amounted to foals getting into fights. After she joined up she discovered that her eerie ability to bullseye any target with anything also extended to the rifles in the armory. She was the only recruit to earn a perfect score during the marksmanship exam. She even got a shiny medal. They were a mixed bag to be sure, were I to pick my preferred team out of a line up I doubt I would have picked this one. Except maybe Trauma, seriously he's huge; I once saw him hit his head on a hanging light. *** (Authors notes: This is my first fic. I was inspired to write it after reading the original Fallout Equestria by Kkat. And if you haven't read it then I don't know what you're doing reading this, go read it! Anyways, first fic blah blah blah. Please don't expect regular updates I'm a busy brony with many unfortunately non-pony related things to do, and I don't have an editor to run these by. I'll update when I can. Tell me what you think and comment with any constructive criticism you may have. Thanks You All For Reading!)