Fallout Equestria - No More Tears

by Darkstarr48

Chapter 3

In my dreams, visions arose of a land untouched by spellfire, much like the small glimpse into the past I had received from the picture given to me by my parents. A large city, centered around a seemingly impossibly high crystal tower that would boggle the mind of any stable dweller who is conditioned to a ceiling no more than a few feet from their heads. Green, lush vegetation surrounding its eastern borders, and harsh, flat snowy tundra bordering its west. Ponies happily trotting about performing daily tasks with a strange crystalline glint off their coats and manes.

I stood in a balcony, seated near the top of the spire, watching over the landscape and the ponies that I had imagined to be my subjects, and I the queen of this strange new world, letting my troubles of the wasteland sink away as they are replaced by all of the senses, filled to bursting with all of the sights sounds and smells of a Crystal palace far, far, away. 'Strangely realistic for a dream.' I think to myself as I inhale the fresh air, untainted by radioactive particles and dust. I hear trotting behind me and go to turn around, but to my surprise, my muscles don't move on my command.

"Cadence, I brought the reports from princess Luna." a friendly, male voice said from behind me. I turned around, following my body which is still ignoring my input. I brushed my pink multicolored mane out of my face with my magic. It was then I realized that I wasn't me. I felt taller, more powerful and sensitive to the air blowing through my feathers. Wait, feathers? WINGS? I HAD WINGS? I frantically willed myself to look back, but to no avail seeing as though my body was not under my control. I mentally sighed in disappointment and turned my attention back to the conversation at hand.

"Good, good. Thanks, Sir Armor." My host said in a sweet and playful tone.

"Hey, that's King Armor to you, Princess Cadence" he replied, echoing the same friendly tone she had used to him. He trotted up and kissed me on the muzzle and gave a hug which my body gladly returned. At this point, all I could feel was confusion. Princess Who? Armor, Cadence? I would just put this off as part of a strange dream if Luna's name hadn't been mentioned.

"So, what's new on the homefront?" The unicorn stallion asked trotting to the edge of the balcony overlooking the kingdom with the wind blowing his neon blue mane into a messy combover.

"Uhm.. Nothing too interesting." I said somewhat distracted. While my host was busy intently soaking up the image of Armor's flanks, I was observing the mark on his flank. It was a blue shield, embossed with the familiar pink starburst seen on the flank of the ministry mare, Twilight Sparkle. Now this is a mystery... I thought to myself. ...One thats gonna drive me nuts.

He turned to look back at me "What? You're mumbling. Something the matter honey?" I shifted my eyes away to look up at his and stammered,

"Oh, no, sorry. I'm just tired today." I felt her droop a bit. "Yeah, news isn't very good today. We've got zebra pushing on our south, and changelings rallying to the north."

Armor cringed, "I thought we banished all of them with their queen years ago"

Cadence sighed, "That was years ago, and sometimes, banishment isn't enough."

"We'll, luckily for us, that letter from Luna is asking if were receiving any hostile contact from the zebras. Shes offered to.." Cadence cut him off with a shake of her head.

"I know that Equestria’s one of our allies, but I don't want to get roped up in the war. It isn't our fight." She closed her eyes and sighed helplessly.

"But think of all our friends, the Princesses, the Wonderbolts, the ministry mares, my sister." This only seemed to unsettle Cadence more as I felt a tear trickle down her cheek. Armor sighed "I understand you don't want to bring war to us, and I don't either, but we don't have too much of a choice." Cadence nodded and looked back at him who had come up muzzle to muzzle with her. He smiled. "Come on Cadence, how about we head out for a nice dinner date and we can think this over, hmm?"

She sniffled a bit and gave him a little peck on the nose, "Yeah, I think I'd like that." I felt her smile as the world around me became hazy and the beautiful world of the past faded away and left me awake in the dim light of... where am I?

As the feeling in my own body returned, I frantically started looking around and froze when the glint off of a shiny glass ball caught my eye. It sat beside where my head had been resting on the cold concrete floor, I reached out to grab it, but discovered my hooves had been bound behind my back. I struggled to set myself free when my rustling attracted some attention. A dark grey gryphon materialized out of a dark corner and walked up to the other side of the cell that I found that I was being kept in. His scars became visible, cut into him with the same pattern of the stripes of a zebra, his beak curved into a wicked smile as he reached through the bars and grasped my chin in his razor sharp claws to pull me face to face with him.

"Awake already?" He asked in a heavily accented voice that just oozed brutality. I went to reply defiantly but in my fear, produced only a terrified squeak. His smile grew as he chuckled to himself. "We have plans for you stable dweller."

I began to tremble in fear for my life. Hadn't the wasteland already tried to kill me? In fact, it was in the middle of doing just that when this new threat rescued me? Sort of. While I was trapped in a cell, alone, with my head in the claw of a gryphon, tied up and fearing for my life, the dehydration induced dizziness from before had stopped. I could see and think straight for the time being and as long as I had my wits, I had my life. I stopped and thought logically for a moment and relaxed as all the pieces fell into place. Had they wanted to kill me, they wouldn't have fed me and given me water. What did they have planned? Were they friendly? No, definitely not, the face that was not that of a happy neighbor who was glad to see another soul in these goddess forsaken wastes. It was more of a "You would make a nice snack" expression. Or.. oh goddesses, where are my friends when I need them?

"I don't think this one will make a very good addition to Red Eye's army, Stripes." A ragged white earth pony stallion with a torn ear says walking up alongside the gryphon. "Look at how lanky and weak she is."

"Hmmm, but she may be good for something." Stripes said tilting my head side to side, his face returning to that 'rapey' expression. How would that even work? I'm a pony, hes a gryphon, do wastelanders even have any sense of decency?

"Not so fast." the white one warned. "If shes from a stable, she's could probably rake us in some money. When we found her, her pip-thingy had her asleep, its been modified, normal ones don't do that."

"Maybe" Stripes said dropping me. "If she is as smart as you let on, she could be of some real use to us after all. I suppose Red Eye doesn't need to know we found her and her friends." On the inside I let out an enormous sigh of relief knowing I wasn't going to be a overgrown bird's whore. "But are you sure we can't have a little fun with her?" He asked, almost pleadingly to the other one. He got a good look at me and grinned, "Tempting, tempting, just... later."

I began to tune out their discussion of what to do with me and I began to assess the situation. Since my brother was strong, he would probably be forced into this 'Army' Which answered one of our questions, is there any civilization out here? If there is, so far all we've seen is the barbaric side, but if I make it through this, there may still be hope for this place. Rusty would probably have been killed, because if they use this much brutality to secure soldiers in their army, that meant that they were expendable. So medics are pretty much useless.

I took a moment to look myself over and frantically thought to myself, 'okay, I'm bound, so I can't move, I don't think my magic is limited. I won't test that, i don't want to get their attention should they change their mind about not using me as a living sex toy.' There was a metal collar latched tightly around my neck, enough to allow me to breathe, but pressing studs into my neck to keep me from getting comfortable anytime. A small box on the right side flashed with a small red light embedded in the collar. If i had to guess its a remote controlled shock collar. I had read about one of these before in books and how they were developed by the Ministry of Wartime Technology to keep enemy P.O.W.s in line at camps.

As the gryphon and the other pony continued debating my fate I sat up and began fiddling with the collar. Not to disarm it, just to readjust it to not stab my neck. I looked around the room outside the cell. All of my equipment was stacked neatly on a shelf along with Rusty's First aid boxes, and Wendy's bags, neither were bloodstained so I guess they're fine. I look at the glass ball on the floor and levitate it into a pocket on my suit that I was thankfully still wearing.

The shifting warranted some attention from the gryphon who looked at me and laughed. "Getting restless are we? You won't last long with that attitude." He produced a small metal box that was painted to look like a pack of cigarettes. he flicked the top open and a small tab separated from the side to form a clacker which he squeezed threateningly. I shrank back down in fear of getting shocked. "Now that's more like it." he said putting the clacker into his shoulder pocket. "You stay right there, we'll be right back for you." They walked out and I heard a screen door slam shut.

Knowing that this was the only bone these two would throw at me, I wasted no time searching around the cell for any kind of metal scraps that I could use to pick the lock on the door. I searched every square inch of the cell before drooping, realizing the futility of my efforts. Then it hit me.

"My bags!" I exclaimed, hope welling up in my chest, scooting up to the bars and trying to use long range telekinetics to undo the straps on my bags to search for the lockpicks inside. I fumbled with the strap weakly until it popped open with a soft click and its contents spilled onto the table. From the pile I pulled a set of lockpicks to me, my grip getting stronger as they neared me. I repeated the process with the small golden figure my father had given me. Being heavier, it took longer for me to scoot the hardened figure of shiny salvation across the floor to me. I pulled it through the bars, and began using the sharp sword in the figure's mouth to saw through the ropes hindering my movements.

A few minutes later, the ropes lay coiled in the cell and the door wide open as I pulled on my equipment as well as that of my comrades. I searched around the room for anything useful as a weapon, and found what I was looking for in a cabinet next to an empty fridge. The blade was dull, but the point however, was not.

"Looks like I'm stabbing." I whispered to nopony in particular, rounding the corner to search the rest of the building for my brother and Rusty. I trotted quickly with worry audible in my stride on the hard wooden floor. I never really was stealthy, but at this point I didn't care, all that mattered was finding and freeing my brother. Rusty was important too, but my brother took priority.

I headed up a flight of stairs. This building was beginning to seem bigger on the inside than on the outside. I hadn't encountered any exits, and this was the second floor. I began to think that that screen door didn't actually lead outside. As I continued down the hallway, a tinking sound caught my attention, leading me around a corner and through a doorway with another few cells, mostly with other pitiful ponies, but the one on the far right which housed the bright orange mane of Wendy with one of the metal collars clapped around his neck, tapping his pip-buck against the bars of the cell weakly. I trotted up and tapped mine against the bars next to him.

He jumped up in surprise and let out a sigh of relief when he realized I wasn't trying to kill him. "Ready to get out of here, or have you grown fond of this place?" I tease while fishing through my bags to retrieve a lockpick to pick his cell door.

"Oh, no, i actually like it here." He said rolling his eyes sarcastically. "Comfortable beds." He motioned to a pile of straw in the back corner of the cell. "Friendly cellmates." He nudged a fresh corpse with a broken neck in the opposite corner. "And let me tell you, the food here is phenomenal."

I smirked and stood, leaning on the open cell doorframe. "Good, then you shouldn't have any problem staying while I go find Rusty and we get outta here."

He frowned and trotted out of the cell next to me, "On second thought, maybe we can find somewhere better to curl up and die."

"Thought so." I levitated his bags onto his back and brandished my knife again. "Ready?"

He nodded and we walked towards the doors, trying hard to ignore the other bound prisoners staring at us with scared, helpless eyes. We couldn't risk staying here and alerting any slavers in the vicinity. We trotted through the doorframe and ran headlong into an alarmed Rusty, heading toward the room we had just left. I looked at him in total relief and smiled lowering my knife.

"Great to see you, Rusty." Wendy said clapping him on the shoulder. He winced at the friendly contact and looked away bashfully.

"Likewise." Is all he said looking back up at me as I placed his first aid boxes over his back.

All three of us continued down the stairs back to ground level, happy to be reunited, and confident in our strength. As we finally reached the floor, light streamed through a single window.

"Well, at least we know its daytime." I said peeking over the windowsill. Outside, locked in chain link pens are even more enslaved ponies. We were at the end of what seemed to be the main street of an old town, with a standing clock tower at the corner of a saloon shaped building marked with a faded painting of an apple. Other than the slaves, there was no activity, and the town looked as if it had been very busy, very recently.

As I scanned the yard, something out of place caught my eye. A young mare digging at the corner of a fence, about to squeeze through. She was out of sight of the gryphon and the other slaver who sat at an overturned cart playing cards, totally oblivious of our escape, and that of the fenced mare, who had just slipped through the hole. She turned around to face a stallion inside the pen who was slightly larger than her, and therefore unable to slip through the fence. They put their hooves in the same spot on the chain link cage and silently said their goodbyes. The mare turns and ran. Ran towards the boundaries of the camp. And suddenly, with a sound of corn popping and a flash of light and a stream of gore, her valiant escape plan came to a gruesome end as her head violently detached from her body which fell limp along the boundary marked by metal poles. Blood began to pool around both parts of her corpse.

I gasped and flattened my ears, tears starting to well up in my eyes from witnessing the act of spontaneous violence. Wendy jerked back in shock, staring at the body wide eyed. Rusty seemed mostly unaffected, his only hint of acknowledgement was a slight flinch. The stallion in the pen wobbled on unsteady hooves and fell to the ground violently weeping. On the complete opposite end of the emotional spectrum, the two slavers laughed and pointed at the deceased slave and her devastated lover.

After a long shocked silence, Wendy spoke up. "We need to get these collars off." I nodded in agreement and tilted his head to the side to look at the panel housing the explosives. I found a small hole, when picked with the lockpick, popped off a cover to reveal several wires tangled in a knot, attached to a small charge of explosives. I rooted deep through my memories to try and bring forth any books I had read on the subject of explosives. Nothing came to mind and I sighed nervously, prodding the wires hesitantly bringing my knife to bear. I'm gonna have to wing it.

"Moment of truth." I said reassuringly. If I couldn't remember what I should do, I guess go with what the movies taught me: cut the red wire. I slid my knife along the red wire, and after a dramatic pause, sever it. The collar starts beeping furiously and both of us seized up expecting instant death.

As the beeping stopped, a piercing click of a firing pin is emitted from the device. I shut my eyes expecting to be showered in gore strewn paste that had once been my brother, but the explosion never came. I hesitantly opened my eyes to look at my brother who is sweating profusely, but sighing and inhaling deeply, getting air that the collar had previously had constricted.

"It was a dud! You are one lucky son of a bitch." I exclaimed hugging him, showing heavy relief that he wasn't torn in half by the collar.

He started laughing joyfully, just having clicked that he hadn't died. "Don't talk about mom that way." he said unlatching the deactivated collar and dropping it to the floor.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but we were just escaping." Rusty said finding his voice.

"Yes, of course, sorry." I say beginning to work on his collar. This time, I cut the black wire and the collar pops off and tinks to the floor harmlessly. We all release another sigh of relief. I levitate the lockpick and knife to Rusty and tell him to cut the black wire. I tilt my head to the left, revealing the box, he nods and slips the lockpicks into the collar. A metallic clink surprises me and I shrink helplessly, fearing the angel of death that was surely about to descend upon me, but it didn't. Only Rusty waving a broken lockpick in front of my face. I sighed in relief and nod. I wiped the nervous sweat from my brow, fishing another pick out of my bag and levitating it to him. This time, the cover pops off and tinks across the floor, he quickly severed the black wire and the collar popped off onto the ground.

"Free at last." I said smiling happily and rubbing my neck where the collar had left a mark. The guys nodded and I flatly whined "Aren't we getting the hell outta here?"

"Sounds great to me. Lets see if we can go find any civilized civilization." My brother says yawning.

"Right behind you!" A familiar voice called from the doorway, twirling a frighteningly sharp blade in his claws.

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Footnote: Level Up
Perk Added: 'Scientific' pursuits - Your knowledge about mechanical endeavors and your fiddling with objects has granted you +10 Science and +5 Lockpick, after all, you can't do science without breaking a few rules.
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I'd like to thank KKat for writing the original Fo:E for writing an unbelievably great story, and Somber, for writing Project Horizons, the story that pushed me over the edge and forced me to try my hand in writing.