War Never Changes 01
She said that I took the easy path by running away; she said that I had run away from my responsibility to my world when I turned my back on Princess Celestia in search of power; you know what I answered back to the so-called Princess? That she knew nothing about my decision, saying that I was coward? She haven’t seen what I’ve seen, she haven’t walked among rubble and ruins and think about the time when they were still intact and functional.
Every time we found out a new place in this lonely place that was once a budding city I feel the loneliness and pain of what have this world become, of what a simple decision could cause and how many souls suffer from the madness of few.
The old flag had been torn down by the ravage of radiation and time, but I have also seen that same flag being put back on its place by the brave few that lived on newly made towns, signaling that civilization was back and no matter what kind of raider band or crazy government lunatic appeared they will stay here.
It all started so long ago; when countries around the world began to see that their dependence on oil was bringing them to the point of no return there was a shift on renewable energy, but companies that had made a fortune selling oil and many of its products saw the danger to their way of life and quickly searched for another product, quickly going back to the energies that were found before, nuclear power.
That research was a curse in disguise.
Blinded by the opportunities that brought nuclear power and its subsequent transformation into fusion cells Earth reached a new golden age. But it didn’t last long; soon everybody saw that this was not an eternal source of power and they were just putting a blindfold to the world and every problem that they had before was now even greater.
Tensions reached a point of no return and with just a couple of buttons being pressed around the globe, Earth ceased to exist in matter of minutes. War like never seen before raged through the surface of the world destroying everything on its wake.
Those lucky enough were saved from nuclear annihilation thanks to huge shelters called Vaults; these Vaults allowed people to survive underground until the time it was deemed safe for them to return to the surface. In time these vaults opened to a new and bizarre landscape, they soon began their own tribes expanding across the country and creating a new society among the destruction of the last.
But not all Vaults were safe, what people didn’t know is that the Vaults weren’t created to save humanity but to study them and research them, with each Vault being a completely different experiment. Some put drugs on their water just to see what would happen; another separated the survivors into two groups and filled them with so much paranoia until they broke and began attacking the other side.
I was lucky, Vault 47 was an experiment focused on mass stasis; I could still remember the day I went inside the metal monster, with other citizens of Canterlot flooding the entrance waiting to be saved from the incoming salvo of nuclear missiles.
The only ones I could recognize were the Stetson wearing girl with her family with her, the fashionista looking for her little sister and an annoying girl with rainbow colored hair. All of us were being herded to a massive hall telling us that we were going to be decontaminated, I should have known something was wrong because the next moment there was a flash and then a feeling of floating in the void, where there were no time or suffering, it was a weird feeling that lasted forever and just for a second.
What we discovered, was that after almost 200 years in use the machines finally malfunctioned and the stasis field was lifted freeing all the Canterlot citizens in what, seconds ago from our perspective, had been immaculate halls, now only rusty walls and empty halls welcomed us.
We were an experiment, one that had been abandoned, just like the people in charge of the machines had been; in the end we found out the bodies of those that had been in charge sprawled among the halls, now turned into skeletons; they have killed each other, some trying to leave the vault and others following the rules imposed by Vault Tec.
In the end, one worker had survived, only to die due to bloodloss right in front of the vault door; many of us didn’t like each other, in fact, I was sure AJ and the rest would have thrown me from a cliff but we understood something the precise moment we left the vault… the people we were before the end were death, only together could we survive on this cruel and devastated land.
And it had been hard, oh so hard.
Our own little village had been attacked by insects the size of a small car, by crazy junkies in search of supplies and by what seemed to be zombies out of a horror movie but were humans so contaminated with radiation that since that moment we did everything we could to avoid it.
I don’t know how we survived the first months, but between AJ’s family knowledge of plants we soon had food, Rainbow and others volunteered themselves as the village’s guards and with me and a rather dorky girl by the name of Twilight we got the machines inside the Vault functioning again so medicines and supplies were not a problem anymore.
But soon it was not enough, there was a desire in me growing incessantly every time I watched the horizon, the desire of knowing what was beyond the walls we have created, and would you believe it? I wasn’t the only one, because those three girls that I once bullied felt the same thing, and with a hug to their family and sisters we all geared up in search of the rest of their old friends, to finally put their ghosts to rest, to find their fate among the Canterlot Wasteland.
So here we were, hearing the sound of machine guns being fired and bandits screaming either in rage or pain; a bullet went flying at my side before the bandit that had been shutting at me had his head exploded in bits of meat and bone all thanks to Treacle’s sniper rifle.
It was quite the surprise for all of us to find among the rubble and ruins of Canterlot City a new town that had become quite the beacon of hope among the bleak Wasteland; its name? Pie Town, could you believe it? Pinkie Pie’s message of smile, hope and happiness infected everyone inside Vault 52 and until this day they still lived every day with a true smile. Treacle Tart was the direct descendant of Pinkie and the other three girls took an instant liking to her, it was hard not to, she was so peppy and cheery, just looking at her smile and yellow curls put you on a happy mood.
A loud bang and I watch AJ put down a bandit with her Cowboy Repeater, the same with Rarity and her Plasma Rifle; looking at my side I nodded to Rainbow Dash, she inmediately covered me with a salvo of bullets from her SMG, I guess we had fought together so much that we didn’t need to talk.
Without even needing to say anything I feel a prickle on my skin and immediately the world seems to have slowed down; it was my own invention, one that I was proud of, a combination of chemicals that when injected had this reaction, so far and after making test with animals it was found that the only being that could not get addicted to it was me, probably something to do with my own blood considering I come from another world.
Quickly leaving my cover I aim my modified Gauss Rifle to a bandit and press the trigger, then once again and a final one before the effect of Turbo finished and three heads are separated from their body, then I feel a bullet graze my arm, is nothing serious and I know Fluttershy will immediately start working on any damage.
Fluttershy… poor Fluttershy. The quiet and demure girl had found herself in another Vault away from her friends and her problems had just started; one of the scientist in charge of Vault 51 had fallen in love with Fluttershy, or better said, he was obsessed with her to the point of using her for the real experiment behind the Vault, the birth of a new type of AI using a human brain.
For two hundred years Fluttershy had lived inside a computer with the scientist transferring his mind into a Brain Bot model; by the time we found the Vault he had gone beyond insane, saying over and over that Fluttershy and he had been destined to spend eternity together; I swear, making a brain go splat had never been so satisfying.
It was sad the reunion of friends but Fluttershy had survived the situation with aplomb, spending huge amount of times in a state of energy saving so she didn’t live through much, but what she did was upload herself upon my newly acquired Stealth Suit; I swear, hearing the suit talk was a surprise on itself.
Anyways, all the bandits taken care of and everyone on our side alive, we put our attentions on the one reason we attacked the bandits, a girl that looked just like Twilight back in our village, but immediately I could see that this girl was not only terrified, but that she didn’t belong in here.
I have met her once, hundreds of years ago, when I was still the bully, when I had left Princess Celestia and Equestria behind, I don’t know what effect the radiation had on the portal but seeing her here was proof that the times between dimension were screwed, but also that it was still working.
There was only one thing going through my mind the moment I extended my hand to the fallen girl to help her get up.
But you know what?
Ponies do.