• Published 17th Jan 2013
  • 1,349 Views, 52 Comments

Fallout Equestria: WNC - Fallen Star DLC - Alamut



A side story to Fallout Equestria: War Never Changes

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Heavens

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria there was a time of prosperity and progress, fuelled by a never ending war. The virtues that have shaped the realm for countless generations were cast aside, forgotten by minds corrupted by greed and anger. And then came an end...
Silence fell across the planet as the lands were consumed by balefire. The only salvation for the survivors found in vast, underground Stables. When the great blast doors finally opened their inhabitants found a different world. A world deprived of moon and sun, covered in an eternal cloud cover.
The pegasi, the lords of the skies have sealed them off from the surface and its horrors, forgetting the virtue of the greatest of them all. Hooves were raised and curses thrown but the ponies of Equestria received no response. Darkness fell across the Wasteland of Equestria...

oooOooo

The pink mare landed on top of a hill that rose above the wide, desolated area. She brushed away a few streaks of red mane that had fallen on her face and looked into the distance. Around thirty or forty kilometres to the north east she could spot a white, needle-like tower. The titanic structure rose all the way up to the heavens, piercing and disappearing into the dark cloud cover.

Her mother told her about it in her stories. It was used for weather control as part of the S.S.P. and somewhere between it and the point where she stood was Ravenclaw. Her green eyes lingered on the lead coloured clouds. Somewhere up there was the place her parents once called home, the Enclave they’d left to help the surface.

The pegasi didn’t know how it was down here. They believed the Wasteland was an irradiated place, full of mutants and monsters. A hell deluded of life, in which ponies were unable to survive. She knew from her mother that the Enclave had laws forbidding contact with the surface, created to protect their citizens, and that she and her father had broken them. It made them outcasts, who could never return.

There was a confident look on her face, eyes sparkling with determination. Ruby was going to fly up there and plead for her parents. She would tell them about the life under the cloud cover, and the ponies that lived here. That they were good, always trying to do better and they needed help. The young mare was sure they would hear her out. The Enclave would exonerate her parents and come down to help. They had to!

Although her mother always praised their society, and the virtues of loyalty and duty it was build upon, she never hid from her daughter that the pegasi also had faults. Vices based on 200 years of history and living in isolation for so long. But in their hearts they were good ponies. Ponies that only needed somepony to show them the right way. Ruby was certain that she was this somepony. In her youthful enthusiasm, the idealistic mare believed, that she would change the Enclave and the wastes.

A loud rumbling in her stomach gave a pause to her thoughts. The mare was hungry and tired. It took her the past 5 hours of constant flight to get here and she had to do it at night. She hadn’t wanted to attract the attention of anypony at the Collective. Especially the one of her parents, her friend Brutus or his grandmare Crackshot. The young flier could use a little break for sure...

Ruby sat down on her haunches, rummaging in her small saddle bag. She pulled out a pack of fancy buck cakes and a bottle of purified water. Taking a sip from the bottle the mare decided, that she would start the ascend in an hour or so. The pegasus unwrapped the paper and took a bite from one of the cakes. She smiled in delight. Cherry!

Once again her eyes wondered towards the cloud cover. Her mother explained it to her once, saying that it was maintained by the S. P. P. and served as a protection from the radioactive fallout. The mare sighed. What fallout? Everything was more or less irradiated, but nowhere near to the dangerous levels from two centuries back. Ok, there were places where you risked death or instant ghoulification, but they were few.

Ruby took another sip from her bottle and asked herself how Ravenclaw would be? Her father wasn’t too keen to tell stories about the Enclave but her mother always described it as a better place, worth to strive for. She said that it was the antithesis of the Wasteland. Peaceful and secure. Free of slavery, raiders and other nightmares of the surface. A nation with a proper health and education system, hospitals and schools, caring for the needs of its citizens. Everything that Equestria once was. What it should be! An utopia over the clouds, and the mare would soon get to know it.

oooOooo

The mare fought against the wind current. She was flying blindly, eyes closed to protect them from the fine mist. Ruby always thought of clouds as fluffy and warm, but the wet darkness surrounding her seemed more like swimming in a cold river than flying! She’d almost squealed the moment she dove into them and the cold droplets of water covered her muzzle and body. Now her muscles were screaming in pain. Her wings were going numb, too exhausted from the additional weight, as her fur and feathers became heavier, pulling her down, soaked in the water gathered in the clouds. The flight seemed to go on for days. How long would it go on?

And then suddenly it was bright and she could feel a gentle breeze passing over her wet body, sending shivers down her spine. But at the same time she felt warm beaming down on her coat, drying her off in mid flight. The mare stopped. Hovering in the air, she slowly dared to open her eyes a little bit, but squinted them back together as brightness assaulted them. She rose a leg to her brow and opened her eyelids once again. Still half blinded by the brilliant light Ruby gasped.
The sky above her was the colour of a clear blue, more beautiful than she ever imagined. She eyed the boundless space wondering just how far did it stretch? Ruby had always thought of the sky as her limit, the dark cloud curtain being the border of her world, but now... How high could she fly in this sky, that didn’t seem to even have an end?

Beneath her stretched an endless mass of white. The clouds were passing slowly, forming and changing into fantastic landscapes, known only in dreams. She slowly descended, with legs bent under her. Hovering barely a meter above the white carpet she stretched out with a hoof and restricted it immediately after touching the now hard surface. With wide opened eyes the mare tapped it warily a few more times, before setting down. She was standing! Standing on clouds! The pegasus grinned happily, the euphoria was like nothing she had ever experienced. Even getting her cutie mark hasn’t felt this good.

“Woohoo!” Ruby reared on her hind legs and started pouncing around with joy. “Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!”
She leapt into the air and started doing barrel rolls, the fatigue from the ascend completely forgotten. A beam of light to the eyes blinded her for a moment and she looked up for its source. Even with a hoof hold high for protection, she could barely grasp the bright outline of the light source high above in the middle of the sky. Was that...

A sudden realization struck the thoughts of the young mare. The sun. It was Celestia’s brilliant sun! She leapt down on the clouds. Wings wide outstretched, Ruby closed her eyes and lifted her face, bathing in the warm light. The mare smiled and sighed with relief. She had made it, managed to fly all the way up, through the dark veil covering the world below. It was so... peaceful. Nothing like the sadness and disheartening dark of the Wasteland. The young pegasus felt happy. She felt at home.

oooOooo

“Wheee!” Ruby couldn’t hold back a giggle as she slid down the cloudy slope on her belly. She was playing around like a little, hyperactive foal. The young daredevil was flying tailspins and other manoeuvres or was simply running up and down the pall hills – the endless white landscape her own private playground. She hopped over smaller clouds and busted into the bigger ones, coming out on the other side, her pink coat covered in fine dew. For mere moments she was sparkling like a brilliant star, before the sunlight and air rush dried her of once again.

Ruby landed on a large cloud formation, obscuring her sight until now. Finally coming to a halt and breathing heavily from the exhaustion, the mare looked up from her hooves. Her eyes went wide and she fell back on her haunches, mouth agape in a big O. In the distance, maybe five or ten kilometres from the mountain she was sitting on, behind a plane filled with similar hills and giant pillars made of clouds, she could see a white city.

Based upon giant, island like clouds, great buildings, many stories high, were rising into the sky, their forms impossible for any architecture using different materials. Long colonnades run along the edges of each isle, mighty and yet filigree bridges spanning them together. And then Ruby saw them. A silent “whoa” has left her muzzle as she looked at the bright, multicoloured arches and rivers pouring down from some of the clouds on the ones below them, forming wonderful cascades. The mare’s eyes sparkled in glee. Rainbows, just like the ones in her mother’s stories. But way prettier, with colours more vibrant than she could ever imagine, and real. Real rainbows!

A movement to the far left caught her attention. Something was moving under the white surface, whirling up the clouds. The pink pegasus could recognize a shadow slowly floating up from the depths of the cloud cover. And it was big, really big. As she watched, the shadow surfaced, taking the form of an enormous black platform, flanked on both sides by dark storm clouds, with little black dots, apparently pegasi, flying around it. Another one followed in its wake, merely two hundred meter to its left. And then a third one!

Ruby watched them amazed. She’d read about them in old history books! They were cloudships. No, wrong – warships. Arcanotechnological wonders that secured the pegasi air superiority during the Great War. Those were raptors, dragon hunters, designed to fight the mighty lizards, that have once fought on the side of the zebras. There were large letters, painted across their black hulls. The pink flier squinted her eyes. Carnifex was the name of the battle platform closest to her but she was unable to read the ones of the other two.

The mare looked at the cloudship with awe. Its front was an open hangar, which looked like the wide mouth of some marine predator, brimmed with anti aerial guns. The Carnifexes undersides showed numerous batteries of magical energy cannons. Each of them pulsed with rainbow coloured energies, seemingly eager to let their destructive power loose upon the world. The black thunderclouds that were keeping the craft aloft were illuminated from within by the powerful electric discharges, bellowing silently. At the rear end of its dark hull a few dozen propellers powering the battleship.

The ships massive magical energy cannons roared to life, obliterating a white pillar two kilometres to her right. The mare folded her ears terrified by this sudden demonstration of power. What was going on? Why were they shooting? Was something...

“What the fuck are you doing here kid?!” Shouted a voice from behind.

Ruby spun around and saw five young pegasi hovering behind her. Each of them was wearing some sort of black barding, which left their legs and face bare, with a purple emblem of clouds and wings on their chests and a strange battle saddle like contraption on their backs, connected with their flight goggles. The one that had shouted at her was a yellow coated mare with a fierily red mane and a winged flame as her cutie mark, a golden pegasus badge pinned to her breast. The red eyes behind her goggles showed a mixture of terror and anger.

“I asked what the fuck you are doing here!?” She repeated furiously.

“I-I...” The pink mare stammered in shock.

“Are you insane? Don’t you know that...”

“Hellfire! The Carnifex!” Shouted the mare with a dust blue coloured coat and a white mane with blue streaks, next to her. She had a similar badge like the first one, but hers was silver.

Every pegasus looked towards the raptor's black form. Its weapon batteries were slowly turning towards the cloud that Ruby was sitting upon. One single thought connected the young fliers like a hive mind.

OH FUCK...

“Sweet Celsetias burning tongue lick my horny clit...“Hellfire mumbled under her breath. She quickly shook her head and yelled. ”Wing! Fall back! Milky Way!” She turned to the mare on her right.” Help me with this kid!”

The three other pegasi took off towards the city while the two mares dived down towards Ruby, who was still sitting like petrified, eying the raptor's guns in shock. They grabbed the younger flier under her fore legs and jutted into the air, barely seconds before a bright beam of magical energy obliterated the great cloud.

After a few minutes they sat down on a small cloud high above the white plane. The three raptors continued their onslaught far below them. Hellfire grabbed the shoulders of the pink pegasus and started to shake her.

“Are you dumb or something you fucking brat?! Do you even know how dangerous that was?! You could have been split into atoms by that fucking cannon! Do you want to die?! If I were your mother I would spank your retarded flank so long and hard that...”

SMACK!

“Eep!” The golden flier made a cute scream and turned towards her team mate, who had just slapped her flank. “What the fuck was that for Milky?!”

“Look.” The blue mare glared angry, nodding at something behind her.

Hellfire looked towards Ruby and blinked stupefied. The younger mare had tears streaming from her eyes and sobbed silently. She sat back on her haunches and stuttered. “Hey Kid... Look I’m...”

“Cut it Hellfire.” The other mare shoved her to the side and laid a wing around the pink pegasus. She had a veil of stars as a cutie mark. ”Shhh, it’s ok now.“ She cooed into her ear. ”Don’t mind the big wild dummy. She’s the one deserving a spanking for making a cute little filly like you cry. And a spanking she will get...“ She looked up making the other mare blush wildly, her cheeks almost matching her fierily mane. “I’m Milky Way and that’s Wildfire. What’s your name?”

“R-ruby...” The younger mare hiccoughed.

“Hello Ruby, it’s a pleasure to meet you. You know that the thing that you’ve done was very dangerous, don’t you?” She asked in a calm voice.

The pink pegasus nodded.

“Everypony in Ravenclaw knew about the manoeuvres. Why did you fly on the firing range?“ She lifted the head of the younger pegasus, her blue eyes meeting with teary, green orbs. ”If you wanted to see the raptors then there are enough good watching spots in the city.”

“I didn’t want to watch them...” Ruby wiped the tears away with her leg. ”I’m not from Ravenclaw.”

“Fucking tourists...” Hellfire muttered under her breath.

“Shush you!” Milky Way glared towards her friend and then returned her attention to the younger pegasus. “Oh, were you visiting your family then? Your coltfriend maybe?“ She poked at her shoulder and the pink flier giggled shaking her head, the tears mostly forgotten. Even the other mare smirked. “So where are you from? Neighvaro? Thunderhead? Sky-Top Outpost? “The blue mare tilted her head smiling.”

Ruby shook her head once again. “No, I’m not from the Enclave.”

“What does it mean not from the Enclave? We are all part of the Enclave!” Said Hellfire throwing her hooves in the air.

“I’m from the surface. From under the cloud curtain.”

Milky Way nodded. “That explains everything if you’re... WHAT?!”

oooOooo

“How did you get your cutie mark? Did you have to kill some giant mutated super bug?” Asked the purple coated stallion, with a missile for a cutie mark.

“Buzzsaw! Stop asking the filly such stupid questions.” Milky Way waved a hoof at him.

“I am not a filly!” Ruby eyed the mare beside her with an irritated look. “I’m almost sixteen.”

“That still makes you four years younger than us, so you are a little filly for sure.” Hellfire laughed while tousling her mane with a hoof.

“Hey!” The pink pegasus shouted as the whole squad begun to laugh.

They were sitting on the couches and pillows in one of the common rooms of the military academy. The whole campus was located on the outskirts of Ravenclaw and had, beside the barracks and usual training facilities, also its own control tower and runway. After coming back with Ruby and meeting up with their squad Milky Way and Hellfire were ordered to keep an eye on her until further notice.

“But seriously, what’s your cutie mark and special talent?” Asked a black coated mare with a lilac mane, leaning against a green coloured stallion. Her name was Wind Dancer and she had the picture of multicoloured fireworks on her flanks.

“It’s a scarab beetle!” Said the pink flier proudly. “I love to read about history, especially mythology and ancient civilizations and my cutie mark proves it.”

“Pfff, egghead.” Said Hellfire and got smacked in the back of her head by one of Milky Way’s wings.

“Pretty impressive.” Nodded the green pegasus, Sonic. He was Dancer's mate and had a processor as a cutie mark. “Is that how you knew where to find Ravenclaw? From old maps?”

Ruby shook her head. “No, my parents told me about its location. They used to live here.”

A heavy silence fell across the room. The older pegasi gave each other concerned looks. The pink mare eyed them with worried eyes. Had she said something wrong? Were they angry with her?

“Who are your parents Ruby?” Asked Milky Way breaking the tension.

“My father used to be a doctor in Ravenclaw. His name’s Nova Star and my mother...”

“Dawn Star.” Sonic cut in, rising to his legs, his sudden motion knocking Wind Dancer over. “Your mother’s name is Dawn Star?”

The younger mare blinked surprised. “Yes, how did you...”

“Hellfire! She’s a fucking spy!” The stallion yelled holding a hoof towards Ruby. “Her parents killed my aunt and my two cousins!”

The pink flier eyed him in shock. “What? I don’t...”

“Sonic, please calm down!” Wind Dancer touched her coltfriend's shoulder with a hoof.

“Calm down?” He shoved her away. ”They bombed Clean Winds eighteen years ago!”

“Shut the fuck up!” Milky Way’s voice rose up. “You’re scaring her!”

Everypony looked towards Ruby, who was shivering in the blue mares embrace. She eyed the green stallion with angry eyes. “Is she responsible for what happened?”

“No but her parents!” Sonic yelled once again.

“She’s fifteen! That happened before she was even born!”

“N-no... Mom and dad would never do such a thing! They’re good ponies!”

“They fled the Enclave!”

“They wanted to help the surface!” The pink pegasus shook her head wildly.

“They’re murderers!”

“You don’t even have any evidence! The bombing was never cleared, those are just rumours.” Milky Way shouted back at him.

“Shut the fuck up, you don’t know anything!” The stallion took a step towards the mare.

“ALL YOU COCK SUCKING, CLIT LICKING WINGBONER CLOPPING FUCKTARDS SHUT THE FUCK UP NOW!” Hellfire reared on her hind legs and yelled as loud as she could. The room fell silent, everypony looking at the yellow mare in shock. ”Celestia and Luna fuck me with their horns! I’m the sun fucked wing commander and there will be order! Do you cunts understand that?!”

The pegasi eyed themselves uncertain how to react.

“You!” The mare pointed a hoof towards Ruby, who shrunk together and cuddled herself into Milky’s side. “Do you know anything about your parents being terrorists?! “

The pink mare shook her head wildly, terrified by her frenzied stare.

“And you!” Hellfire turned towards Sonic. “Are you so retarded as to let out your steam on an innocent filly that has shit to do with the whole story?”

The stallion met her glare for a few seconds and then looked away with a sigh. “No ma’am.”

“Good.” The mare nodded approvingly. “And now apologize.”

The green pegasus eyed Ruby with a sheepish look and brushed a hoof trough his mane. “Sorry kid. I guess I’ve overreacted. No hard feelings?”

The pink flier smiled weakly and shook her head. “N-no hard feelings.”

“Woohoo! Way to go! The title of team mom goes from Milky to Hellfire!”

Four pegasi face hoofed. “Shut your trap Buzzsaw.”

Ruby watched them all for a moment and then bursted into laughter. The five squad mates looked at each other, some cracking a smile. First smirking, then chuckling, giggling and snorting, one after another joined the outburst. Buzzsaw fell to his back, rolling on the ground and Sonic gave Wild Dancer a kiss as an excuse for shoving her away earlier.

“Oh filly...” Hellfire wiped away a tear. “My wing is a bunch of idjits.”

“What does that make you then?” Ruby chuckled trying to get some breath.

“The most wonderful idiot I know.“ Milky Way peeked her fillyfriends cheek, making her blush.

Ruby sat up. “What’s a wing commander by the way?”

“See this badge kiddo?” Thankful for the change of topic, Hellfire pointed towards the golden pegasus on her chest. “It means I’m the best cadet of my class. Fastest flier, best shot and a born leader!” The last exclamation made the whole team roll their eyes.

“So that makes Milky second best?” The pink pegasus tilted her head.

The mare with the silver badge nodded. “Yes, I’m the vice wing commander, and it also means that our whole squad is the best in the entire academy.”

The younger mare wanted to ask another question but was interrupted by the opening door. Two insect like beings came into the room, making the pink mare shrink together. Quadruped, they had antennas rising from the back of their heads and big, scorpion like tales. There were... magical energy guns strapped to their backs? Ruby tilted her head. Were those black carapaced things pegasi? Yes! Those were power armors! They were a little bit different than those in her history books, but they were power armors for sure. Another arcanotechnological wonder from the Great War. They bore the sign of a white lightning in the middle of their chest plates.

“We have come for the suspect.” Said the one on the right, the speaker in his helmet distorting his voice in a mechanical way.

“What do you mean by suspect? The filly hasn’t done anything wrong.” Milky Way eyed them with a somber glare.

“Enclave law says it is forbidden to penetrate the cloud cover that protects our society from the radiation left after the Great War. No matter in which direction.“ Answered the other voice, this one seemed also masculine.

“Ok, never mind the semantics.” Hellfire waved with a hoof and looked towards Ruby. “You’ll have to go with them now, understood kiddo?”

The pink mare nodded, eyeing the two soldiers warily.

“Good.” The older pegasus gave a nodd and turned towards the black figures. “Where do I have to sign?”

The two pegasi in power armor looked at each other. “Sign?”

“If she’s a suspect, and through this making her my prisoner, according to article twenty three of the fifth Thunderhead Proclamation I’m supposed to sign up the forms, that I’ve handed her over to you guys and get a copy.” The mare recited the rule with a blank expression, reaching out with a hoof towards them. “So?”

One of the stallions sighed while reaching into his saddle bag and gave her a pile of papers.

Hellfire looked through them, signed them and gave the two pegasi an angry glare. “You’re also supposed to sign this up.”

“For fucks sake...” Muttered the stallion to the right, while writing his name.

The mare looked at the forms again. “Sunshine Smiles and Frolicsome Meadowlark? What kind of names are those supposed to be?”

“OUR NAMES.” Said the other one, while leaning towards her in a menacing way, his mechanic voice at edge and the scorpion tail slightly risen. “Will you hand the suspect over, or do we have to talk with your supervisor?”

Hellfire took a step back and looked towards Ruby and the rest of her squad. The young fliers were glaring at the figures clad in the black carapaces but the pink pegasus stood up, smiling at her nervously. She didn’t want her new friends to get into trouble. “Don’t you worry Hellfire, I’m going to be ok.”

Milky Way gave her a hug. “Be careful, you hear me?”

“Sure thing.” The younger mare nodded and trotted towards the two black figures. “We will see each other later.”

“Sure thing kiddo.” Hellfire tousled her mane and gave her a shove with a wing.

After Ruby has left the room Milky Way walked beside her mate. “Those white lightning bolts on their armor...” She said softly. ”They were from the Blitzwing, weren’t they?”

“Yeah...” The yellow flier answered with a pensive voice. Her ears perked up as her fillyfriend leaned onto her side.

“I hope she will be ok...” Whispered the blue pegasus.

Author's Note:

I don't intend to share any kind of ancient wisdom in this part. I'm actually going to keep it traditional.

Foremost I wanted to thank Kkat for the world that she created in her story. I believe our fandom wouldn't be the same without Fallout:Equestria as we would have been deprived of many good stories. You can find her magnum opus Equestria Daily: Fallout Equestria

There are three other names worth of mention at this point: Somber for Project Horizons, the greatest pony fic of them all, No One with his Heroes, the first fic that hooked me up with this universe and Fallingsnow for Guise of Chaos, that showed me that it's possible to create a Fallout: Euestria story that isn't somehow based on any of the original games (I've started reading PH way after GoS)

Now come the big thanks for Jarmari, the author of War Never Changes and the father of Ruby, who kindly allowed me to tell her story and to pour some of my insane ideas into his part of Equestria. Go and read his story, it deserves far more attention!

Last but not least... Thanks for Kosmitus, my critic, editor and complainer ( his ideas have fairly improved my initial draft), and Hubi Koshi who gave me some good advice and whom I misused as a moral compass of sorts.