9 - The Village
Chapter Nine: The Village
“Welcome! I'm so pleased to have you here...”
Some shortcut this was.
I mean, at least the main road was… well, a road! I’m pretty sure the path we were following up the side of the mountain ended a couple of hours back, and we were now traversing unstable terrain with no clear route to get to where we were going. I had lost track of how many times we had to sneak across narrow ledges with some less than friendly looking spikey rocks below, stumbling every other step as we went.
Did I mention that I hated this shortcut?
“I hate this shortcut!”
“We know!” Cobalt shouted back from up ahead, and I could see him jumping over a gap leading down to more of the wonder and joy below us. “Just don’t fall!”
Right, because that was my true plan all along.
“I think the terrain levels out ahead,” Cobalt shouted back, disappearing over a lip as Stripe prepared to make the jump.
Just watching it was gut-wrenching, but she made it across safely enough. The zebra gave a huff as she looked back at the gap, and then glanced up at me inching my way closer to it.
“Try not to fret, it isn’t as far as it looks,” Stripe tried assuring me. “Just make sure it’s a good jump.”
“Ugh, why can’t that damned unicorn just levitate us over? I’d levitate myself, but I doubt I could manage it.”
“I’ll catch you if you fuck it up,” Cobalt snidely assured me as he returned. “It definitely levels out, by the way. The valley below ends in a steep incline upwards and, beyond it, there is as much stable ground as you could want.”
“Wonderful…” I replied, not trying to mask my own deadpan. “The quicker we’re off this ledge, the better.”
I bent my knees, taking in what I was painfully aware could have been my last breath if Cobalt decided it was better to let me fall for whatever maniacal reasons he might have had.
I really was overthinking it, so I just jumped.
And… I landed it! There I was, both hooves firmly planted and very much not bloody pulps! Of course, I did try to ignore the few rocks I dislodged falling the entire way down to the valley below.
If either Stripe or Cobalt had any comment, they kept it to themselves. In truth, I don’t think any of us were this mountain’s biggest fans. Cobalt continued to lead the way, taking us to where he claimed the terrain levelled out. And sweet merciful Celestia it did; the ledge widening out before connecting up with a sharp cliff edge leading down to the valley just like Cobalt had described to us. Leading away from the cliff edge was a new bumpy but mostly flat valley sprawled out between the faces of the mountains either side of us. It seemed to go on a way before thinning up head, moving to then incline back downwards.
“It shouldn’t be too much longer before we’re in the centre of this place,” Cobalt informed us, sitting down on his rump for a momentary rest. And it wasn’t a bad idea that, so me and Stripe followed suit. “If you look at the map, this whole range is like a massive bowl. Mountains along the outer edges, with a rocky but largely empty space in the middle.”
“I recall,” Stripe confirmed. “Though I am unconvinced the miners of old used this path to access their minerals.”
I brought up the PipBuck map, seeing if there were any other paths. There were, but unfortunately not anywhere near our location.
“Well if we followed the coastline from Manehatten there’s a nice flat field leading right into your ‘bowl’,” I remarked, showing them the screen. “There’s also something of the path leading out where we want to go. If two hundred years of all this hasn’t ruined it, anyway.”
“Maybe we should have followed the coastline if this was to be our route,” Stripe mused.
Cobalt coughed sheepishly into a hoof. “Well… I just remembered the shortcut back at the intersection.”
“Great job, oh genius one,” I said, and to be honest I was more than a little put out the unicorn. “Well, at least getting out is easier than getting in.”
“And it is still faster than going around,” Cobalt defended. “That would have taken us days. We can be out of here by tomorrow. And at least here we’re not running into every other raider band.”
“And we should decide when to camp,” Stripe added in, looking up at the darkening sky barely visible through the Enclave’s cloud cover. “Somewhere less treacherous, I hope.”
“I say we get down to the centre and move up to this pathway out. We could camp at the mouth of it, and head straight on first light.”
“That… isn’t the worst plan,” I admitted, begrudgingly anyway. “Alright, we get to this path and camp out for the night. The moment it’s day, we get out of this place and beeline for the stable.”
We all started getting back onto our hooves, taking a few sips from our canteens before storing them back in our saddlebags. As perilous as it was, I guess I couldn’t complain with the time we’d apparently be saving. And it was just a short distance to go, the death ledge getting further behind us as we continued to walk.
This whole area clearly didn’t see many visitors… and I wonder why… However, we did find a few bones curled up against a couple of large rocks. None of us could tell whether they were pony or otherwise, there wasn’t all that much left. So we just kept walking, watching as the path got steadily narrower as the flat surface began its steady incline down. And looking on up ahead I could see a vast landscape of hard rock flanked by countless mountains big and small. Our view of it was hindered by the walls either side of us, though I could see large oddly shaped rock formation dotting the landscape alongside intermittent blackened trees.
Occasionally, my PipBuck would begin to slowly click to indicate the presence of radiation. It would only be brief each time, though it was there. I suppose nowhere had been spared the fallout, even places so far removed you probably wouldn’t have seen a single mushroom cloud. Not over these mountains, anyway.
I wonder how long other countries survived after everything happened? Countries not involved in the war. Had they lasted days… weeks… years before the radiation caused their collapse? It’s not something I had really thought about before… But hey, a lot of this was new to me anyway.
And then all our ears twitched at the growl ahead of us.
Oh yeah, that’s a Yao Gui.
The giant mutated bear was standing in our path directly ahead, staring right at us while sniffing the air. And what did we do? Well… we froze. I mean, that fucker was big…
“So… we don’t move? What?” I hissed over at Cobalt, hoping the smart pony had ideas on how to handle this.
“I don’t know!” he hissed back. “Maybe he’s not hungry?”
“Do not act aggressive,” Stripe cautioned. “It may yet pass us by.”
And then it charged at us.
“Or maybe not!” Stripe shouted, quickly reaching for her sniper as I also grabbed for my shotgun, my horn bursting to life with magic.
It jumped for Cobalt just as we got our weapons free, and the unicorn made a mad dash backwards as his spell was cast.
A blue bubble formed around Cobalt, his eyes scrunched in concentration as the bear leaned against it. And by Luna, that roar it gave was ear deafening! That and the fact that it was beginning to pound against the shield definitely gave us ample reason to start firing!
As if sensing the danger, the creature ducked down behind Cobalt’s own shield as me and Stripe opened fire, nicking it in the hide but doing little more than making it really, really mad.
“Cobalt, you’re in the way!” I shouted over to him, the Yao Gui growling at us from the other side of the translucent barrier. “Move!”
“The moment I drop it, it’s going to eat me!” he objected, opening his eyes just a crack to look at the bear in question. “I don’t think it likes me!”
“It can join the club! Can’t you teleport away?”
“Hang on… Be ready!” he shouted back at us.
His horn seemed to glow a little brighter and we both took aim, and just as his shield collapsed the creature wasted no time in jumping forwards and taking a bite.
Only for there to be a flash behind us as Cobalt emerged with a stumble, and I immediately entered S.A.T.S. when the animal made for another charge. I lined one shot up for its head, and one up for its right leg in an attempt to stumble it. When I engaged the spell, my first shell only took off its ear while the second pounded its leg hard. Stripe also let off a round from her rifle, the bullet gouging into the bear’s eye.
And did that stop it? Don’t be stupid!
Oh dear.
By the time we had let off those three shots, the creature had crossed the distance and, despite its injuries, made another jump at us!
Despite the lack of space, Cobalt and Stripe dived to our left while I ended up going the other way for whatever reason was going through my head at the time. I was under a lot of stress, okay!? But while Stripe and Cobalt dusted themselves off and got ready, I was alone as the bear turned its remaining eye towards me with a very, very angry look.
In those situations, I just wished S.A.T.S. would recharge more quickly…
The bear lunged as I tried to bring up my shotgun in time, only for it to faceplant into a half-formed blue wall that, judging by the blood splatter, broke something in its muzzle. There was the crack of a sniper as another bullet bit into its hide, and it just roared at the barrier in a rage at its inability to reach me.
Then he barrier fell, and my shotgun was right in its face.
Well, its former face.
The point-blank shot tore its skull asunder, and the Yao Gui went rigid before falling and not getting back up again.
And I just stared at the body for a good minute, panting in an attempt to regain my breath. Seriously, that was probably one of the most terrifying moments of my life. Forget raiders, those teeth made it so much worse!
“Thanks, Cobalt,” I said as I got to my hooves, seeing the unicorn slumped and panting even harder than I was. “That shield probably saved me from being lunch.”
“Yeah… don’t mention it…” he wheezed. “Two battered shields and a teleport in under a minute… give me a week please.”
“You have a couple of minutes at least,” I laughed back at him, and he just rolled his eyes before rolling onto his back in exhaustion.
“Are you alright?” Stripe asked generally to the both of us.
“I’m good,” I replied, holstering my weapon. “Dazed, but good.”
“I’ll be fine soon,” Cobalt assured. “I’ve never used those spells in a situation like that before. Practice never truly prepares you for the real thing, huh?”
“Tell me about it,” I replied with a chuckle, looking over to the dead Yao Gui. “We almost got eaten by a bear!”
“Well we don’t have as much as a scratch, so I would surmise we did well,” Stripe noted with a grin. “But perhaps-”
“Hello there!”
With those two words, we were all immediately back on our hooves with two guns and a lit, if flickering, horn all pointed towards a dark grey pony adorned in some kind of makeshift armour made from assorted scrap metal. He had a hunting rifle slung around his back, though he wasn’t attempting to reach for it. A crash helmet was on his head, which he slowly took off in a gesture of good will. When it was gone, we could see his short and uniform mane as the stallion gave us an admittedly creepy smile.
“Uh… hi?” I called back over to him, sharing a confused glance with my companions. “Sorry, wasn’t aware that there was anypony down this way…”
The stallion gave a hearty chuckle. “Oh? Then we must be doing something right. Uh, could you put the guns down? I mean no harm!”
“Who are you?”
“I was hunting that Yao Gui you killed,” he explained. “I come from a village not far from here. We grow what we can for food, but there is so little usable soil. So we also hunt the animals that live in the area for food, like the Yao Gui.”
“Oh,” I replied simply, looking between him and the dead bear. “Well, have it. We have our own food.”
“Thank you kindly!” he thanked cheerfully, never losing that weird smile. “Now, I got some people behind me who can handle getting it back home. But they ain’t coming out until they know you’re not going to start firing.”
We looked between each other, and then lowered out weapons. The stallion gave a nod and, with a whistle, a whole host of similarly armoured ponies emerged from the rocks ahead and moved towards the Yao Gui. While they were working, the first stallion came up to us and bowed his head.
“I’m Sentry, we don’t get many visitors around here,” he greeted. “Who are you?”
“I’m Scrap Heap. This is Stripe.” I motioned to my zebra friend, and then to Cobalt. “And this is Cobalt. We were just passing through.”
Cobalt frowned. “I wasn’t aware of a settlement out this way.”
“We don’t like to advertise,” Sentry stated. “But if you’re here, you’re here. If you need a place to stay for the night, I’d be happy to show you to our home and introduce you to the one who leads us in this terrible era.”
I thought for a second, before turning to convene with the others. “Well, it would beat sleeping on rock tonight. And we could still be on our timetable, as well as do a bit of trading.”
“I agree, but we should remain alert until we know they are who they claim to be,” Stripe responded. “Let him take us to this village while the others are preparing the meat for transport.”
“The Twilight Society would want to know if there’s a potential faction out here,” Cobalt concurred. “Or they might just be another little collection of shanties… but I’d like to see this place.”
Our conference finished, we turned back around to the smiling stallion as I tried to replicate it… failing, because trying to smile that wide actually hurt my face.
“If you could lead us while your ponies are getting things ready here, we’d be glad to tag along.”
“Splendid!” Sentry cheered, sticking his helmet back on his head and motioning us to follow. “Come with me, you won’t be disappointed!”
And so follow on we did, leaving the corpse and the ponies hacking it up far behind. We stayed behind Sentry as he moved briskly forwards, not entirely trusting of a weird stallion we’d run into in the middle of nowhere.
Still, might as well pass the time while walking along to this mysterious destination. I brought up my PipBuck and switched over to the radio, sticking on DJ Pon-3. A rather miserable sounding melody was just finishing its final verse, the final notes filling the air before dying away completely.
“Howdy Equestria! It’s me… DJ Pon-3! And how would you like some n-n-news? All seems quiet in the Wasteland today, aside from the usual bandits and raiders that you so love to hear about. But I do have a bit of news coming out from the Manehatten area today, so listen up children!”
Sentry glanced back at us, shaking his head before continuing to move. I ignored him, focusing on the guy on the radio for the time being.
“So we have a quest, people! Word is a small group of ponies are looking for one of those stables people hid in when the world went into the big kaboom. The guy running the show, who I only know as the Scavenger, also ended up saving a family from one nasty pre-war robot while pursuing his fortune. Hey kid, thanks. Hope you find what you’re looking for.”
He was talking about us?
“Thanks for listening, children! This has been DJ Pon-3, coming to you live to help you thrive! And now… some music.”
I shut off the radio, giving my companions a bewildered look.
Cobalt just shrugged. “It was bound to happen, the DJ knew I was going with you and was probably just waiting until we were gone from the area before drawing attention. And the DJ does love to report on heroics.”
“Wonderful,” I deadpanned. “Well, let’s hope his follow-up report is on our new riches rather than our deaths.”
We emerged from the pathway between the mountains, the full span of the landscape now fully open to us. We took in the sights, the ring of mountains stretching around us far into the distance. And it was here Sentry came to a halt, pointing at a something that was definitely not a rock.
A wall of rusted scrap metal ran in a box shape around a small village. Two rows of pre-war houses ran parallel to each other, a single house sitting centrally at the very end opposite the main gates. Even from here I could see the ponies going about their lives, even if they were dots from this distance.
“There it is,” Sentry proclaimed proudly. “Our Town.”
The main gates to the settlement were directly ahead, made up of the same rusted scrap metal as the rest of the defences. Two guard posts flanked each side, a guard in each armed respectively with a hunting rifle and a small machine gun. It seemed quite safe and secure by the standards of the Equestrian Wasteland, but I just had one nagging question on my mind…
“Why ‘Our Town’?” I questioned Sentry as we reached the gates, the stallion sharing a few words with the guards before returning to answer my question.
“What do you mean, friend?”
“Well, it just seems… unimaginative.”
“It is our home,” he simply replied. “We share it equally. As now do you.”
“It’s not like we’re staying,” Cobalt said with a snort. “Your home can remain yours, don’t worry.”
Sentry just smiled, before banging on the gate and watching as the vast doorway screeched open, the metal grinding against the rock below it. Sentry motioned for us to follow, and we cautiously did so. The guards at the gates gave us the same shit-eating grins that Sentry had… as did just about every other pony exiting their homes to come and stare at the newcomers.
Creeeeepy.
“Somepony go request the presence of The Prophet!” Sentry shouted to a group of guards, before turning to stop us as the gates screeched closed once more. “Wait here a moment, she will be here soon.”
“Who?” Stripe asked.
“The Prophet,” he replied as if it were obvious. “She leads us. It is she who ensures we do not stray. She who hoofs out our tasks each day. Yesterday I was a farmer. Today I hunted. Each day rotates, and we all give equal effort.”
“So you don’t have dedicated guards…?” Cobalt questioned. “Couldn’t ponies become more skilled if they focused on a single profession and worked at it?”
Sentry seemed shocked by the idea. “More skilled? Why would we want to become more skilled in one thing? That would destroy the equality we hold!”
We all gave him blank looks. “…Huh?”
“We all learn the basics in every task, but we don’t need to go beyond that,” Sentry stated. “You will understand… soon.”
I looked around at the gathered ponies, feeling more than a little unsettled. What was with all this equality talk? And how did being slightly better in one aspect than another person make you overall unequal? And there was something else niggling in the back of my mind… Something obvious…
“She’s here…” Sentry whispered, standing aside as a cloaked equine form began to approach us.
Judging by the few facial features I could see, it was a mare… and she was a ghoul. She was dressed in a black cloak that concealed most of her body, a cyan aura holding some kind of staff to her side. Her muzzle was rotten and dried, but with a small amount of light purple fur still hanging on by a thread. I could feel her undead eyes scan over us as she came to a stop and, after a few moments, gave us a small smile.
“Welcome!” a gravelly voice typical of ghouls called out. “So glad to have you here! It’s been so long since we’ve had visitors!”
“The Prophet, I presume?” I asked the ghoul mare.
“Yes, that is how I am known nowadays,” The Prophet confirmed. “I welcome you to Our Town. I’m sure you will see just how lovely it is a place to live!”
“I’m sure…” I replied, coughing awkwardly into a hoof. As we were talking, the sun was making its final descent into the horizon. Darkness began to overtake the village, though the ponies remained unphased. “Uh… would it be alright if we could stay the night? Perhaps do some trading before we leave in the morning?”
“But of course, the inn has been long devoid of occupants,” The Prophet agreed, turning to Sentry. “Please, show them to a room. And do inform them of our treasured history and philosophy, I’m certain it will be a great eye-opener!”
“Of course,” Sentry confirmed, once again beckoning to us. “Follow me, the inn is this way.”
We followed, everypony watching every single step we took with that same smile. Except for The Prophet, who just held that same small smile as she watched us go from within her hood. And for some reason, that smile unnerved me more than the grins…
“Sleep well,” she called over to us. “For you have a better tomorrow.”
And, with a deep pit in my stomach, it was then I realised the obvious.
The adults watching us. Equals signs. The foals? Equals signs. Everywhere I looked… Hell, the home of The Prophet aside even the damned layout was an equals sign.
Everypony had the exact same cutie mark.
Footnote: Level 8
New Perk: Commando - +25% accuracy in S.A.T.S. with rifles and shotguns.
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Hi Starlight. Two centuries seems to have been kind to you if the village is still there.
What will come of this?
Can’t wait to find out Tom.
Uh oh. Look out ponies, Starlight Glimmer's in fallout town!
👍
Ooooooh shit.....
This'll be interesting...
Starlight Glimmer!?
<insert liberty prime quote here>
Sorry... but if this is Starlight as many are guessing, and she dosn't have a damn good reason for going back to evil am I stopping this story...
Nitpicks:
" Iftwo hundred years of all this hasn’t ruined it, anyway.”" Remember your spaces
"Andat least here we’re not running into every other raider band.”" Space
"We all started getting back to our hooves," Pretty sure it should be on. "Back on our feet"
"watching as the path got steadily narrower as the flat surface began its steady incline down." While not wrong, do I think that most are used to "decline" when talking about something that goes downwards.
" my Pipbuck will begin to slowly click to indicate the presence of radiation" Would
8805961
Going back? This is Fallout Equestria! Her redemption never happened in the first place. No Princess Twilight, remember?
8806285
You have gone... Can't remember how many seasons of lore after FoE stopped, Changelings did not happen in FoE because that season wasn't out at that point, neither did Starlight... And you want to choose and pick at what you get from the MLP lore, pushing the timeline and then putting a pin in it when you want... Yea no
8806303
Actually season 3 happened, since the Crystal Empire is mentioned here and there in some fics. Maybe not in the original by itself, but this shares a universe with Project Horizons, Pink Eyes, Murky Number Seven and Heroes. Changelings were season 2. From nearest I can tell, the timeline divergence happened around the season 3 finale, where Celestia didn't give Twilight Starswirls's book.
But that aside unicorn Twi was still unicorn Twi throughout, no Princess ascension. And since there is no Friendship Map, how would Twilight have known to go to a hidden village in the ass end of nowhere?
8806364
Yea thanks for the ride, but I am gonna jump the train right here before it derails. Nice idea and all, but in my book do you either take it all or not at all, none of that picking pieces that you like and not the rest
8806457
I didn't. The timeline diverged during Season 3, everything after that is different. Changelings were before. Starlight was after. There was no way Twilight dealt with Our Town without the map. There is no picking and choosing, everything fits exactly into the timeline of events, I've put a lot of thought into that specifically.
The only thing I'm getting from you is that you just don't like Starlight not being reformed, even in a universe where the events leading to such a reformation could never have happened. Unlike Canterlot Wedding, which happened before the show and Fallout Equestria even diverged. And at the same time the fics this shares a universe with have not explored either aspect in too much detail, which left me free to do so.
And by your words of 'take it all', I'd have to have alicorn Twi's actions from the show be relevant, even though she was never an alicorn in Fallout Equestria. Would you have me contradict the source material rather than painstakingly making it all fit in?
Leave if you wish. Just know that there is no derailment coming up, and your reasons for leaving and the 'logic' behind it are... baffling, to say the least.
Nice story!
WeLcOmE
HA!! I KNEW IT WOULD HAPPEN EVENTUALLY!!
8806483
Well, the original Fallout: Equestria only mentioned Nightmare Moon, the Gala, and Discord, and with the mention of the Royal Canterlot voice, I think the original was finished before the Canterlot wedding, so technically everything that happens afterwards in the show is nonexistent.
This means that Starlight technically shouldn't exsist, and neither should most of the foreign lands and there are only two Princesses.
Crystal empire was mentioned in Project Horizons, but I'm not sure that was a good choice with how it tried to tie itself closely to the original.
Despite all that, I don't mind this cameo, just so long as Our Town stays in Our Town.
D'AH SHIT!!! I should have guessed last chapter where they were at!
Hello communist starlight.
OMGOSH. is it really?
General Kenobi!
Great story thus far.
As a side note
Cobalt is a he.