• Published 28th Dec 2022
  • 1,623 Views, 73 Comments

Fallout Equestria: S.T.A.L.K.E.R - aegishailstorm



Most fear that which they cannot comprehend, whereas a Stalker must figure out a way to make a career out of it.

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Chapter 3: Absolutely Something

Chapter 3: Absolutely Something

After a brisk walk through the downtown portion of Salt Cube City, Nikolai finally came to what he assumed was the open air market that the guard had told him about on the way in.

All manner of shops littered the square, but he noticed that four skyscrapers at the center of the city were still standing and intact. Something Nikolai found odd, considering that the majority of the buildings in the region were either collapsed wrecks or in utter shambles and, from his assumption, uninhabitable.

"I don't want to set the world on fire!" A voice cried in a musical tone. Nikolai jumped and reached for his sidearm. He turned and came face to face with a flying metal sphere, it's front was comprised of a grate and it was covered in metal spikes, with a pair of odd mechanical wings sticking out of either side of it.

"Oh, it is just a flying radio transmitter. Fascinating! I don't really see why one would build one, but it is amazing nonetheless." He walked up to it and tapped it with a gloved finger. "But how does it fly?"

"Magical levitation." A mechanical voice said behind him. Nikolai turned and found himself face to face with an robotic approximation of a pony face. It took him a few moments to realize that he was staring at a set of power armor. As he looked the being over, his eyes drifted to the various weapon emplacements on it's sides. "Wow, is that thing comfortable? I know someone who owns an exoskeleton, and they say it's a pain to get in and out of."

"Well... Yes, it is. You look new here. And you probably are, given that you're asking how a Spritebot flies." The armored mare replied. " I'm what they call a Steel Ranger. I'm here buying munitions for my unit." Nikolai nodded. "Ah, I see. My name is Nikolai."

"Scorch Mark, and please don't ask me how I got that name." Nikolai smiled, "Alright, I can understand that. Can you help me find a place?" He could hear the armor's servos hum.

"Where?"

"The guard at the gates called it, ' Absolutely Everything'." The pony turned around and pointed with her hoof.

"Down the road and to the left. It's a tent with an insignia of 3 bubbles, you can't miss it." Nikolai nodded in agreement,
" Дякуємо за допомогу." The armored being looked back up at Nikolai.

"What did you just say?"

"That mean's 'thanks for the help' in my native language. " He responded. Scorch Mark nodded back, " Alright. What do I know, I hope ya find what you're looking for." Nikolai nodded and walked off with a wave.

The rest of the market was fairly busy, dozens of ponies were bartering over everything from blankets to what he took to be more of those oddly shaped firearms. He noticed ponies glancing uncomfortably at him. Only fair, he supposed, given that he was new to this place and they'd likely never seen anything like him before. A few minutes later he found the tent the Steel Ranger had pointed him towards.

" Ah, все добре! Everything's good!" He clapped his hands and headed inside.

"Absolutely Everything." Well, he'd heard that slogan from to many traders too many times for it to be a surprise. But this place did indeed look like it had... Well, everything. On one side, a set of bladed weapons and guns lined the wall, several other tables at the center held boxes of ammunition alongside various odds and ends. His eye drifted to a pile of paperback books with a horse- no, pony skull on it's cover. It was labeled, 'The Wasteland Survival Guide. By Ditzy Do.' He shook his Geiger counter, and determined that it was fine to remove his mask, he pulled it off and set it to rest on a sling around his neck, he ran his gloves though his sweaty hair and took another swig from his water canteen.


" Ah, that looks like it might have some answers. Hello?"

"Hey Derpy!" A female voice called. "We've got us a new customer!" He looked over, and found a yellow unicorn mare fumbling with what he assumed was a set of crude armor. He could hear the clopping of hooves off to the side. A... Thing, poked it's head out of a back room of the tent.

"Zombie." That was the word that came to Nikolai's mind, he had encountered them a few times during his travels in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. They usually fell into two categories, those mutated by the high levels of radiation. Or those driven insane and corrupted by the mysterious physic fields that permeated a few regions of the zone. The same ones that created the Monolith, at least as far as he knew. He hadn't the slightest as to what had created this creature. He realized that it had wings, although they were in taters. They were doing about as well as the rest of her body. Her mane had almost completely fallen out, and one of her eyes curled upwards in a disturbing fashion.

"Hewlo!" She exclaimed lisply, coughing a bit. Her rotting face curled up in a beaming smile, and her left eye shot away from him awkwardly. The unicorn trotted up alongside her.

"I take it this is the, ' Derpy' that you were calling for?" Nikolai did his best to speak politely, though given the scene unfolding in front of him. That was becoming increasingly difficult. Part of him wanted to scream and run, another part of him wanted to unsling his rifle and put that thing out of it's misery. And another, smaller part of him wanted to burst out into laughter.

"It's ok. She doesn't bite. She's not like most other Ghouls." The once-pegasus trotted forward and gave his leg a squishy hug. He groaned as his Geiger counter let out a few more clicks.


"So, how did this happen?" He gestured to all of her, "Oh you see, Ditzy wasn't always like this, 200 years ago, she was once a normal pegasus. But she happened to be flying a little too close to Cloudsdale when the megaspells hit. Her delivery cart was knocked out of the sky. And the Balefire radiation turned her into this. And she's lived life as an immortal ghoul ever since."


"Oh Babushka! You have had to live in this shithole for 200 years!? I pity you little one." She gave him another slightly radioactive hug. He could hear her squeak out which sounded a bit like, 'it's ok.' But he couldn't really tell. He looked over at the unicorn. She gave a smug grin and shruged.

"Also, you said Balefire radiation. What is that? Is it like ionizing radiation? Earlier my Geiger counter was making weird noises. " The unicorn looked over at the device on his hip.

"Ah, we call them rad meters. And to answer your question mister..."

"Nikolai, my name is Nikolai." He reached down, offering up a handshake. She brought her right hoof up and shook it.

"Thrifty Goldenhoof. Balefire radiation is not the same as ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation comes from little rouge electrons and unstable atomic isotopes being emitted off stuff like uranium. Balefire radiation is similar, except that it's the result of dark magic. Balefire radiation is necrotic and far more likely to result in mutations. It glows either green or blue in concentrated amounts. It's the kind that's rendered most of Equestria a toxic wasteland."

"Ah, that explains why my counter was making such strange noises. It was picking up a different form of radiation! Sidorovich actually sold me something quality for once!" He threw his arms up in success.

"Anyhow, I am looking for more answers then that." Derpy smiled, and Thrifty levitated a copy of the 'Wasteland survival guide.' Off the table. "First copy's free. It should have all the answer's you need. Anything else, feel free to ask either Ditzy here or me." Nikolai stared wide eyed at the magical field.

"How the- How did you do that?"

The unicorn rolled her eyes as she dropped the copy in his hands." Do what? Float the book over too you? Magic! Don't tell me you've never seen it before?" Nikolai shook his head. "No, that is the stuff of fairy tales where I come from." Nikolai recalled the gravitational anomaly from a few hours ago. And realized that what he had said wasn't entirely true. He decided to change the topic.

"Wait, Derpy, Ditzy? You wrote this?" The ghoul nodded. Then another thought hit Nikolai, " I hope I'm not offending you, but would you mind telling me why it is you cannot talk?"

"Her tongue was cut out by slavers a few decades back." Nikolai sighed. "I would apologize again, but at this rate. I thing I would be here all day if I heard everything you have to say." Derpy smiled.

"It's ok. She get's that a lot. " Thrifty said with a grimace. "Nikolai held up the book, anyway, thank you very much, I am going to find some place to read this." He turned to walk out of the tent when he heard Thrifty ask. "Do you have some place to be? You look like you're in a hurry. " The Stalker scratched the back of his head.

"No, I don't think I do. Would you like me to tell you my story?"

"Well, not right now when we're open. But maybe later, there's a bench over there if you would like to read the guide I just gave you. Or..." She gestured to the stuff around her.

"Is there anything you'd like to buy?" Nikolai thought about it, " Eh, not now. Maybe when I know more I will want to acquire something here. He slumped down on the bench and opened up the booklet. After reading the brief foreword he looked through the table of contents.

"That chapter on guns sounds interesting. But I think I will start on that chapter about environmental hazards. " He flipped to it and began to read.


"Ah!" Nikolai shook himself awake and sat up, saving himself from an undignified fall to the ground. He still had the guide lying in his lap, open to the page he was on when he had dozed off. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked around. Derpy and Thrifty were conversing with some other ponies about buying a set of leather armor. Why equines would ever choose to wear the skin of a dead animal was beyond him. He took another swig from his canteen and checked his watch.

"I've been asleep about an hour and a half. " He took another swig from his canteen and pulled out his PDA. " This place must be in a different time zone. Oh well, that is no problem for me." He recalled that he had seen something important in the pages he had read. He quickly flipped though them and found what he was after.

"... In that case, you should probably boil the water with a little bit of RadSafe or Rad-away. You can find it in these little packets..."

"Medicine that entirely cures radiation poisoning! Now this is something worth fussing over!" Nikolai slipped the book into his pocket along with his PDA and got in line.