Fallout Equestria: New Canterlot

by Kryptonian

Prologue

Prologue

War.... war never changes. My grandmother always told me that. No matter how different the weapons, the tactics, the motives, the ponies, it is always the same. I always told her she was crazy. Guns, rockets, swords, bombs, they revolutionized fighting, revolutionized war, revolutionized the world. I glanced at her. She looked deeply into me. A tear fell slowly down her cheek.

The bombs fell. They scattered the great kingdom of Equestria like dandelions to a field. All that was left was fire... fire and ash. As well as hope. For out of the remains of the crippled land, emerged ponies bent on survival. When the end came, there were giant vaults, which we called "Stables", that housed the sole survivors of the fallout. That is where I come from. My name is Woodshop. I was a resident of Stable 98. I hated living in it. Everything was made of metal. The corridors were so short, no pony knew how to run properly. The walls were covered in pipes that would spew steam, and we were told if we ever were to touch one, all of the Stable Dwellers would die. I remember the first time I left the Stable. Food rations had run low, so the supervisor of the Stable ordered the families living there to draw from a raffle to decide who would have to leave for the others to live. I never truly understood how someponies could be this cruel. Sadly enough, my family was one of the chosen to leave the Stable. My mother and father begged that we stay, for I was still a small colt when we were chosen, but we were denied our request.

"Survival of the Stable," a guard told us, "Do you expect us to risk the lives of everypony living here just because of one fuckin' kid?"

I stamped my hoof in front of him in disapproval of that comment, "Hey! Show us respect! You were the ponies who sentenced us to death!" A hoof came crashing down to my face. I fell to the metal grate known as a floor with drips of blood gushing from my nose.

"You damn filth! Learn your place and let the big ponies talk!" the pony shouted as he raised hoof again.

My parents ran to my aid. My mother cradled me, while my father stood in front of the pony who beat me. "You stay away you brute! You should be ashamed striking a child!" My father wasn't as big as the other pony, but my father's courage was twice the measure as the pony's.

The pony lowered his hoof and chuckled, "Learn that mule some damn manners."

My parent's eyes beamed with hatred. My own, confusion. My parents took me to our family's apartment. Apartment 8C, it always was stuck to me, I never forgot it. We gathered our belongings. I brought a picture of my family. My father, my mother, my older sisters, Rosebud and Water Lily. They're twins, and they're inseparable. The final members in the photo were my grandmothers, Grandma Twilight, and Grandma Pinkie. One on my father's side of the family, the other on my mother's. They lived with us too, we were all one big happy family. I didn't have many belongings to pack. I had lived in the Stable for almost all of my life, and there was nothing that I was attached to hear, only the photo. My parents, sisters, and grandmothers however had much to bring. They had lived outside of the Vault before the war for many years. When all of them had packed, my father stopped me from leaving the apartment.

"Come here, Wood." he called from the back of the main room.

I stood puzzled in the doorway, and glanced behind me. I noticed all of my other family members were waiting in the hallway smiling at me. I walked back into the apartment, "What is it, dad?"

My father pressed a concealed button underneath a shelf. A compartment popped out with what looked like a bracelet in it. My father looked up at me and smiled. I stood there gazing at the bracelet. "Go on," he said, "Take it, its yours".

I looked up at him, "But, Dad, how did you..." I shook my head. I didn't matter now. I reached into the compartment and brought up a shiny bracelet. There was a screen in the middle of the bracelet. Above the screen, there was some lettering the read, "PipBuck3000". Scattered around the bracelet there was random knobs and lights. I looked at my dad and hugged him. We trotted through the corridors of the Vault, past the doors of the onlooking ponies that I called friends. They all had a sadness in there eyes, and I understood that deeply. The corridors led to a giant steel door. Several guards, one of which was the pony who struck me, were standing on next to the door. I gave an angry sneer at him, but looked towards the door again. The Stable 98 jingle began blaring from the speakers that were stationed above the door, which meant the "wise words of our fearless leader" would ensue.

"My poor, former residents of Stable 98, with a heavy heart, I must usher you off into the outside world for the survival of the Stable. This is heavy on us all, for we lose two of our most wise members, Mrs. Sparkle, and Mrs. Pie, two former wielders of the Elements of Harmony."

I looked back at my grandmothers. They almost looked, disappointed.

"We do not send you off unprepared, however, for we will give your family 500 units of the current currency of the outside world. A guard walked up to my father, and handed him a small fabric bag. My father took it, and shook it softly. We could here jingling of something in it. "Now, my friends, it has reached the time in which I must wish you all good luck in your future. Live smart, live safe, and life strong." the voice concluded. The Stable 98 jingle started up again, and the guards ran off into another room. They locked the door behind them. Red lights began to pulse, and the giant door slowly inched open. There were whirrs and mechanical strains as the door opened. Several bits of rocks and clouds of dust fell to the floor as it opened. A beam of bright light shot at my eyes, forcing me to shield my eyes with my foreleg. As the door fully opened a rush of wind hit our faces. It smelled awful. There was a scent of decay and smoke in the air. My vision was slowly becoming more clear. My near blindness slowly faded into a brown ground. I looked up and saw a wasteland or the same color. Ball of dust blew through the wasteland. I looked to the side and saw my family. My father, my mother, Rose Bud, Water Lily, Grandma Twilight, and Grandma Pinkie. I smiled, no matter how terrible the circumstances, we would always have each other.

The next night, we camped out a half mile from the site of our Stable. We carefully rationed out what food we had, but Grandma Twilight and Grandma Pinkie didn't want to eat. Instead, they just sat there, looking out into the wasteland. We slept, a sleepless night. Father said that there were many dangers out in the waste, and we should remain vigil. I checked my PipBuck, it said there was a small settlement in the north called "Everfree Post". He said in the morning we would have to walk up there. When we awoke we found that some of our supplies had been lost, or stolen. We lost half of our rations, and some of our extra tents, but we could do without them. We awoke very early.

"Right at the crack of dawn," my father told me, as he was packing the tents into his bag, "Before any of the bandit squads awake." We began to walk northward, toward Everfree Post. Burnt fields of grass, lakes filled with radioactive water, destroyed homes with foundations barely holding them up. Despite their age, Grandma Twilight and Grandma Pinkie were very fit and spry, they were able to keep up to the rest of us quite well. Eventually, we reached a ridge line. Father told us to stay back while he would look over the edge. A shot went out. My father came back running towards us. "Run!" he shouted. We turned and sprinted as fast as we could. More shots went out. I turned my head, three ponies with rugged clothing were running towards us. There were weapons pointed at us. Flashes were being shot out of the barrels of the weapons. Bullets were whizzing through the air by my head. No impact was made. I noticed that I was behind my family. They were all running much faster. I check my PipBuck. It said we were a couple of yards in front of the Everfree Post. But there was nothing. Only trees to the side of us. While I was checking my PipBuck, another shot went out. Instead of behind me, this shot was fired at my front. I stopped, and just fell. I knew that it was over for me, I was cornered. But I didn't die. Hoofsteps were running past me. Ponies were shouting, in front, and behind me. I looked up from my cowering and saw ponies chasing the bandits off. I was grabbed and was being dragged forward. I regained my running motion and started to sprint forward. I looked to the side and saw Grandma Twilight running next to me. There were more loud bangs and shouts as we ran forward next to the rest of the family.

"Where did those ponies come from?" I frantically asked while I was panting heavily.

"We're here, don't worry." my father replied. He stepped to the side to reveal a large sign with the words "Everfree Post" crudely painted onto it. More ponies ran from a gate that held the sign up, all with guns raised.

"Come on! Come on! Get yer wounded into the Post!" one pony shouted as he pointed toward the inside of the gate. Strange, we didn't have any wounded that I knew of. We ran past the gate, and entered a township. There was only one road, and it there were buildings on both sides of the road. The ponies who had chased the bandits away from us had come back to the Post. They took hold of me, "C'mon, boy! We gotta help ya!"

I struggled from their grasp, "Let go of me! What are you talking about?" I felt a drop of liquid slide down my right cheek. I stumbled to the ground. The liquid was red. I could sense that the others around me were shouting, but there voices sounded muffled, almost as if I were underwater. I slowly shut my eyes, I needed a rest.