Fallout: Equestria - Common Ground

by FireOfTheNorth

Prologue

Prologue

The sea sprayed against my face as I piloted the boat down the coast. The engine sputtered, and I checked the fuel gauge before giving the contraption a swift kick. Once it resumed its disquieting puttering, I returned my focus to navigation and bailing out the salty water pooling around my hooves. It wasn’t much in the way of boats, but it was all I had to work with; also, it was the only thing I’d gained from my stint in the Grittish Isles.

After leaving the familiar cities of Vanhoover and Stalliongrad, I’d traveled east to a place I’d only seen before via simulation. Things had gone well in Flankorage at first, when nopony knew me for who I was. Some of the Storm Guard mercenaries who’d abandoned the Northern Lights Coalition at the Battle of Burnside knew of me, but none of them recognized my face from the battle, when I’d still had my power armor to protect me. The mercenaries who did know me as Doc weren’t openly hostile, just cold or rude; they’d taken a job, and just because I was their enemy then didn’t mean I was their enemy now. I realized this tentative peace couldn’t last when ambassadors from the North Equestrian Alliance started to arrive, attempting to recruit the settlements of Flankorage to join them. The NEA leaders had no love for me, even after all I’d done to form the alliance in the first place. It was inevitable that they’d spill the beans to the Storm Guard sooner or later that I was also Lord Lamplight, and I suspected they’d be less accepting of me once they knew I’d both hired them to fight (indirectly) and fought against them. So, less than a year into my exile, I left Flankorage and continued east.

I wandered farther and farther to the east, until I reached the sea. I stayed close to those radioactive waters longer than I should have, considering my next course of action. I knew that if I followed the shoreline south, I would reach the ruins of Manehattan, where the mare I loved now lived. When I’d gone into exile, she’d gone south to fulfill a great responsibility. Sage was DJ Pon3 now, the voice of Radio Free Wasteland that gave hope to ponies across the Equestrian Wasteland. One day, hopefully, we’d be able to reunite—once she found somepony else to adopt the mantle of DJ Pon3 or the memory of Lord Lamplight had faded enough for me to join her; whenever that day would be, it wasn't here yet, so I had to suppress my desire to head to Manehattan.

Instead, I managed to hire a boat to sail me across to the Grittish Isles. Whatever I’d been expecting there, it wasn’t what I found. Nopony had thought to inform me that the Grittish Isles were ruled by the Steel Rangers. They weren’t like my late friend Rare Sparks, or Elder Manticore’s Fury after he’d led the Vanhoover contingent; they were even more zealous than the Vanhoover Steel Rangers under Elder Sagebrush or the Stalliongrad contingent. The moment it was discovered that I had a PipBuck, I was immediately imprisoned and had all my technological possessions taken from me. My PipBuck was secured to my foreleg with a biometric lock so only I could remove it, and the Steel Rangers fortunately drew the line at sawing off my foreleg or killing me in order to get the PipBuck. Instead, they kept me imprisoned for five years in the Tower in Trottingham, attempting to force me to give up my PipBuck using methods that were usually unpleasant. Eventually, my continuous refusal to cooperate convinced the Elder Council to give up and release me. None of my weapons or gear were returned except for my Stable jumpsuit and doctor’s coat, and I was given a rickety, leaky boat and commanded to leave the Isles and never return.

From there, I continued east, to the few remainders of Equestrian civilization past the Celestial Sea. There wasn’t much there in way of settlements, but I was able to secure enough petrol to keep the boat moving down the coast. There were rumors of settlements in the griffin lands, so I made it my mission to reach them. After puttering along for days, I finally spotted the ruins of a city in the distance.

The engine sputtered alarmingly, and I checked the fuel gauge again. The fuel was running out now, and I’d already emptied the last of my petrol canisters. Yanking the steering wheel sharply to the left, I directed the boat toward the beach, trying to stretch out the last of the power until I reached dry land. The boat ran aground a distance off the shore, and I grabbed my saddlebags filled with provisions before jumping into the shallows and wading to the sandy strip.

From the beach, I looked back out at the sea. Beyond the abandoned boat slowly tilting as the waves washed against it and silt shifted beneath, the sea stretched out to the horizon. In the distance, I could faintly spy the edge of the ever-present layer of clouds blanketed over Equestria, generated by the Single Pony Project towers. It had been a strange experience since I’d moved beyond the veil and could see the sky stretching on to infinity, something that still gave me unease even years after leaving the close confines of a Stable. I was getting accustomed to it, though, as long as I didn’t look up.

The ruins I’d spotted from offshore weren’t far away now, and I began to make my way toward it. A sniper shot shattered the quiet, and I didn’t even have time to cast SATS before the bullet hit me. It wasn’t a killing shot, but the bullet did pierce the next-worse place: right through my PipBuck and foreleg, causing the electricity and magic contained within the device to strike out at me. I’d experienced this once before in simulation, and even the realism of Operation: Flankorage hadn’t prepared me for the intense amount of pain inflicted as my PipBuck was destroyed and I blacked out.