Fallout Equestria: A Child's Hope

by RLYoshi

Chapter 3

“Gah! It’s been two or three days since I made an entry on this thing...I kind of got distracted.

“...and knocked out. Same thing, right? Kinda? Maybe?

“My first few hours in the Wasteland weren’t very interesting, but I guess I should talk about it a bit. Trust me, things get better as time goes on.

“Or worse. Depends on your definition of those two words...

---

After he had listened to his dad’s message, Cobalt was ready to move. His body, however, protested. The pain and exhaustion from the Stable was catching up with him, and he had no medical supplies with him.

He got up and began walking. He didn’t even know where he was going; his E.F.S. wasn’t showing him any nearby locations. He just kept going forward. He knew that, even if it took a while, he was bound to find civilization eventually.

As he walked, he checked his PipBuck to keep track of his inventory. He finally realized just how underprepared he was for this desolate expanse of land. The Bitalin, blanket, and pre-war money seemed like the only things that would help him survive, and even that was a stretch. Of course, he hadn’t exactly had proper time to pack.

His stomach growled, reminding him that he had yet to eat or even drink anything today. He tried to ignore it, but after another hour of walking, he found that he was starting to have trouble staying focused on anything but his belly.

Groaning, he slowed his pace and looked around, trying to stay alert in case anything came into view. As it was, there was just him, the bare land, and the sun above.

He had never seen the sun before. It was like a giant lightbulb, but he couldn’t turn it off. Even if he wanted to. He preferred the dark. It was easier to sneak around in the dark. Instead, he was out in the open and felt like he was melting.

A structure came into view. Hope rising, Cobalt began trotting quickly over to it. It looked centuries old and torn apart, but it still had four walls and a ceiling. (Well, more like three and a half walls.)

Rather than look for a door, he just hopped in through the first hole in the wall he saw. The inside was mostly empty, aside from a bunch of boxes. And amongst those boxes were corpses of dead ponies, bruised and bloody, littering the floor.

After the ten seconds it took for all this to register in his brain, the earth pony turned around into a corner and threw up.

---

Once he had gotten rid of what little he had in his stomach, Cobalt began walking around the area carefully. Based on the boxes, he assumed it was a warehouse of some kind. A large amount of them were torn open and looted. Apparently, somepony had gotten here before he did...and they weren’t gentle.

Not a single pony was still alive, yet Cobalt felt like whenever he turned away from a corpse, it would spring up and attack him. Whimpering, he held his toy gun, even though it would be completely useless. And not just because it wasn’t a real gun; he only had two pellets left.

He soon found one rather large box that had not been opened. Either the ponies that came here didn’t notice it, didn’t care for it, or didn’t have enough time to open it. Whatever the reason was, it was something he could open. Pulling out his screwdriver, he got to work on opening it.

He only got one screw out before the side fell off, the other screws being so rusted that they just fell out once one was gone. Placing the screwdriver back in his bag, the young colt peered inside the crate.

The earth pony was confused, but not disappointed. Inside was what appeared to be a soda machine of sorts. A logo emblazoned on the front advertised its contents as Sparkle~Cola. The machine was not plugged in, but locating a cord and an outlet on the wall soon solved that issue.

Pulling out his bag of pre-war money, Cobalt fed a few coins into the slot, and was rewarded with a glass bottle of this substance. Somehow, it was still cold. He hesitated, wondering if he should drink this odd beverage, or just toss it to the side.

He didn’t need to think about it for more than a few seconds. Pulling the cap off, he took a swig.

It tasted amazing - whether it actually tasted that good or just felt so pleasant as it washed around his dry mouth, he didn’t know or care. His PipBuck ticked a bit, indicating that radiation levels in his body were rising slightly, but he didn’t pay attention. It wasn’t too big a danger yet.

He drank the entire soda, then stuffed the empty glass bottle in his bags - cap included. He had a lot of empty space, and he didn’t know what might be useful in the future. He spent another several coins on the machine, getting five more bottles that he kept in his bags as well, saving them for later.

He then proceeded to look back at the...corpses. Even though he just drank, he managed to hold it all in, and started looking around for anything else that might be useful to him. As disrespectful as looting dead bodies felt, he logically realized that these dead ponies wouldn’t be needing their things anytime soon.

Not that there was much to take anyway. A fair amount of the bodies were already looted, and those that still held things didn’t have much. Out of all the useful supplies, he managed to salvage a small medical kit, several bags of bottle caps, and the one object he considered leaving behind: a gun. A real, loaded, deadly gun - a revolver, to be precise.

He wanted to leave it. To never touch it. But one thought in the back of his brain made him pick it up and stash it away:

Something must have killed all these ponies, and that thing is still out there.

His bags jingling slightly from the sound of bottle caps - he honestly had no idea why these ponies were hoarding them - Cobalt left the warehouse, his stomach growling again to remind him that food was still a necessity.

---

He didn’t know when, but at some point, Cobalt must have fallen asleep, because he suddenly found himself waking up. It was mostly quiet around him; there was a slight crackling noise and quiet murmurs, but that was all.

He was exhausted, and all he wanted was to roll over and sleep until he died. But his brain was already working again, and he knew he wouldn’t get back to sleep anytime soon. So he let his eyes open.

The first thing he saw was the sky above him. For a moment, he thought he was indoors, because it was pitch black. But he soon noticed the stars and recalled various stories his father read to him involving the night sky, and he realized that it was simply dusk.

The next thing he saw, as he tilted his head to the left, was another pony. A light grayish-brown unicorn stallion, with a dark greenish mane and tail and a cutie mark of a strange object Cobalt had never encountered. It looked like a longer version of his recently-acquired revolver, but with two barrels for bullets to come out of instead of just one. Whatever it was, this pony had it as his cutie mark.

“Waking up?” the stallion suddenly asked. His deep yet calming voice startled Cobalt slightly. “You’ve been out for a while there. How ya feeling?”

Cobalt didn’t know quite how to answer that. He felt cold, hungry, disoriented, endangered, lost, and just plain exhausted. But rather than list off all of those, he just let out a mumble that sounded somewhat like “I’m fine”.

The stallion either didn’t hear the mumble or chose to ignore it. He turned his head towards something out of Cobalt’s view. “Terminal! Gentle Touch! He’s awake!”

The murmuring that Cobalt had been faintly hearing stopped, and hoofsteps took its place. It was at this moment that Cobalt’s senses finally returned completely, and he realized he was lying on a small bed of hay. The blanket he packed had been tossed over him, yet he still felt cold. Sitting up, he looked around at where he was.

He was by a small fire, kept contained within a circle of rocks, with a tent several feet away. The stallion with the strange gun-like cutie mark was the only pony around, aside from himself.

Well, that was true for about five seconds. Then two more ponies stepped out of the tent.

The first was another unicorn stallion, noticeably larger and bulkier than the one beside Cobalt, and with a body that seemed to shimmer ever so slightly. He was a pale green, with hair that was similarly green, but much deeper. His cutie mark was a computer screen, much like those Cobalt found around Stable 14 on different appliances. He guessed that this stallion was Terminal.

The other pony was an earth pony mare, coloured a light blue and with a pure white mane that flowed down past her neck, but surprisingly, lacked a tail. Her cutie mark was a red plus sign that Cobalt identified as having to do with medical care - if only because he saw the same symbol on his medical kit. By process of elimination, Cobalt deduced that this mare was Gentle Touch.

The colt realized that he had zoned out for a few seconds while the stallion beside him got up and talked with Terminal and Gentle. When he returned to reality, he looked around for his things. His saddlebags were off, but thankfully, his PipBuck remained. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his saddlebags leaning up against the side of the tent.

Gentle must have caught his gaze, because she turned to him and smiled. “We didn’t take your things, don’t worry. We just moved them so you could rest comfortably.”

Cobalt tried to ask something, but his voice caught in his throat and all that came out was a cough. His hunger and thirst suddenly hit him hard. He felt like he hadn’t eaten or drank in weeks.

In seconds, Gentle was at his side with a canteen pushed to his lips. As soon as his tongue made contact with the liquid inside, he began instinctively gulping it down. The water rinsed against the walls of his throat, providing immense relief. Even the Sparkle~Cola from before didn’t taste this good.

He finally forced himself to pull away; his thirst was not quenched, but he knew these three ponies wouldn’t be happy if he drank all their water. He didn’t want to get on the bad side of the ponies who just saved him. In fact, he didn’t want to get on the bad side of any pony.

“Feeling better?” Gentle asked. He nodded.

“Now, I’m willing to bet you’ve got a lot of questions,” the currently nameless stallion broke in. “We’ll answer them, but first, we have a few questions of our own. First off, who are you?”

“M-My name is Cobalt Blue,” the colt answered nervously, glad his voice was back.

“Well, hello there Cobalt. I’m Full Force.” The stallion nodded at him, then gestured to the other two ponies. “That’s Terminal, and the mare is Gentle Touch.” He turned back to the child. “Now, what were you doing out in the middle of the Wasteland?”

I ran away from Stable 14 because my mom, who’s also the Overmare, was trying to kill me for something that wasn’t my fault, and I looted a warehouse and stole a bunch of stuff from dead ponies and then I passed out at some point from either exhaustion or hunger.

Rather than vocalize those thoughts, he simplified it. “I’m looking for my dad.”

Full Force nodded. “Do you know where he is?”

If I knew where he was, I wouldn’t be looking for him.

“No..."

“Alright, so you’re a lost little kid in the Horseshoe Wasteland?” Terminal broke in, his gruff voice reminding Cobalt of the ponies chasing him back in Stable 14. “Gee, somepony’s a genius. Didn’t even pack food and water.”

“I didn’t have time...” Cobalt murmured.

“Time? Listen here, kid. This place is unforgiving. Not having time isn’t an excuse. If you don’t bring along stuff to eat up, the world will eat you up.” Terminal spoke as though from experience. “What could possibly be more important than packing properly?”

Running for my life from ponies trying to kill me.

“Running for my life from ponies trying to kill me.”

That was an answer Terminal couldn’t say he expected. “...what?”

“Okay, I think we’ve asked enough questions here,” Force broke in, keeping Cobalt from elaborating and Terminal from pressing further. “If he doesn’t wanna talk, he doesn’t have to talk.”

The larger unicorn snorted and looked away. "All I'm trying to get across to him is that if he doesn't know things, he's gonna die. Plain and simple." A glare from Force at last got him to shut up.

“Where am I?” Cobalt asked, finally getting out the question he had wondered since he woke up.

“Just our little campsite a few miles out of Sunsettlement. We found you collapsed on the ground as the sun was setting. Starved, exhausted, and slightly injured.” Force motioned to Gentle. “Be glad we have a medic on our side.”

Suddenly reminded of his hunger, Cobalt winced as his stomach growled loudly. He hadn’t eaten anything solid since his birthday, which - assuming he hadn’t slept through an entire twenty-four hours - was one day and two nights ago.

“Hey Terminal, think you could break out the rations?” Force asked. “I think our little friend here needs a meal.”

---

“So I spent the night at their camp. I fell asleep just a few minutes after eating. I didn’t eat a whole lot, but it got me through the night. Of course, come morning, I was starving again.

“Terminal, who I guess was their leader, said we were heading back to Sunsettlement. I questioned why they were out here and not just home in Sunsettlement, but I didn’t get an answer. Terminal and Gentle just looked at Force, who got really quiet and kept walking.

“When we were close to the town and stopped for a little break, I found him in private and asked again why they were out so far from town...

---

“You’re nosy, you know that?” Force grunted. Cobalt shrugged. “Look, it’s nothing important. Even if it was, it’s none of your business.”

“I just want to know,” the colt whined. “Please?”

Force looked down at him for a moment before sighing, his eyes closing. “My sister.”

Sensing the beginning of a story, Cobalt sat down beside the larger stallion. “Sister?”

“Hopeful Horizon...or just Hope, as we called her. Last time I saw her, she was maybe a year or two younger than you.” Force chuckled a bit, his expression relaxing as he was lost in memories. “Our mother died from a sickness about a year after giving birth to her, and our dad left us since he didn’t know how to take care of kids on his own. I was sixteen and she was four when he left...years ago, but it feels like it happened just last week.

“I brought her up. Kind of weird...a colt like me with a shotgun cutie mark, reduced to caring for a little filly. But I didn’t mind. She was nice. Always excited over something or other, but in a good way. No cutie mark, but that was one of the few things she didn’t care about, believe it or not.”

Cobalt glanced down at his own blank flank. He had trouble believing a pony wouldn’t care about earning their cutie mark; after all, you had to earn one to really do anything in Stable 14.

“We lived in Sunsettlement. I still live there, on my own now...thanks to those bastards.” His face turned to a glare. He either didn’t realize he was using foul words in front of a young colt, or didn’t care. “About a year ago, some raiders invaded the town. Shot a few ponies, kidnapped some others. Hope was one of the ones they kidnapped. It’d be a miracle if she’s still alive somehow.

“I miss her...I’ve been traveling around the Wasteland, looking for where the raiders might have taken her. I’ve found a few hideouts, but Hope wasn’t in any of them. Did you find an old warehouse while you were walking around? Full of dead ponies?” Cobalt nodded. “We were there maybe a day or two ago. Got ourselves some new weapons and supplies, but we had to bail out when it got dark. You don’t want to be out here alone when it’s nighttime.”

The young colt nodded. “Thanks again for finding me...”

Force waved it off. “Don’t mention it. Pure luck. Terminal led us the wrong way from the warehouse, so it took us several hours to turn around and start heading the right way back home. If we went the right way the first time, you would’ve been far behind us, and we wouldn’t have noticed you.”

Cobalt shuddered at that thought. “I didn’t even know I fell asleep...”

“You’re only, what, ten? Eleven? With minimal supplies, trekking through the Wasteland? Buddy, I’m surprised you even made it that far from the warehouse. You’re one tough little guy.” He gave Cobalt a soft, friendly punch on the shoulder, and the earth pony giggled. “Say, where’d you come from, anyway? I know you were at the warehouse, but where were you before that?”

The answer was automatic. “Stable 14.”

Force laughed. “You couldn’t have come from a Stable. All the Stables either don’t have ponies in them anymore, or keep the ponies in them.”

“I am from a Stable!” Cobalt argued. “My dad ran away and everypony started hunting me down, so I ran away too!”

“How’d you get out, though?”

“I got the password and opened the door.” He left out most of the story, mainly because he had trouble remembering it all with how tired he was.

Force shook his head. “Well, innocent until proven guilty. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one. Not really my business anyway.” He looked away, then back. “Say, what weapons do you have on you?”

Huh? “Weapons?”

“Guns and such. Like this.” He pulled out a shotgun, identical to the one pictured on his flank. “Beautiful, isn’t she? I call her Firelight. Not a day goes by where I don’t shoot her or polish her.”

Cobalt stared at the gun. Compared to the two weapons he had (one of which could barely be considered a weapon), it was huge. His eyes widened as Force spun it around.

“‘Course, Firelight isn’t the only gun I carry. I’ve got a pistol as well, and Terminal has a sniper rifle. Gentle doesn’t care much for fighting, so she carries our medical supplies instead.” He put Firelight away. “So what do you have? If anything.”

The colt slowly took out his toy pistol and revolver. He expected Force to look disappointed at the small amount of firepower he carried, but instead, he looked shocked. He looked back and forth between Cobalt and the revolver.

“...geez, kid,” he finally sighed. “I was just joking. I didn’t think you even had weapons on you.” He looked at the toy gun. “At least you’re packing something safer as well.”

At that point, Terminal yelled at them to get moving again. Cobalt packed his guns back up and rejoined the walk. He stayed between Force and Gentle, while Terminal took the lead a few feet ahead.

All Cobalt could think about was Force’s sister. He didn’t have a sibling of his own, but he wondered about how it would feel to have one, only for them to be taken away. It likely didn’t feel too good.

They walked in silence.

---

“So that covers my first two days in the Wasteland. It took us a few hours, but we eventually got to Sunsettlement. Terminal went off somewhere, but Force and Gentle stayed with me. I think they wanted to keep me from getting into trouble.

Sunsettlement looked...old. Then again, everything since I came out of the Stable looks old. Force and Gentle showed me around, and I guess that’s what I should talk about next, because things started to pick up from there...

---

Footnote: Level Up (4)
New Perk: Travel Light. Terminal may mock you for not being well-equipped, but you'll have the last laugh when a lack of armour (or simply a lightweight set) allows you to move 10% faster.

Comments

[Serefin]

Okay, now I'm SURE Fimfiction has glitched out! Here I am, having freaking FORGOTTEN this story exists, and yet there's TWO freaking chapters that I neither read nor got an email alert for! What the hell Fimfic?!

Anyway, uh, something something something continue the story. I don't know, okay? I'm pissed with Fimfic for glitching out.