Fallout Equestria: M.I.A.

by CivilWarPony

Part Two: Radioactive

Part Two: Radioactive

A strong storm was brewing in the air; Airborne could feel the wind beginning to pick up, behind him Baleout coughed. Baleout looks at the gloomy landscape and says, “Is this place always this depressing?” Starshine replies, “It hasn’t really changed much since the War, with the exception of the bloodthirsty raiders and the occasional pack of ghouls that roam the Wastes.” Baleout looks at the dust storm quickly approaching them, he turns to Airborne who nods saying, “We better get into cover otherwise I would hate to fly blind in this storm.” Airborne scans the landscape and sees a destroyed building, turning behind him he says, “Let’s stay there until this storm blows over.”

Airborne glides down to the dilapidated building, looking up at the rusted lettering on the building, Firewing Arms stand out. The letters barely hanging to the wall, Baleout trots up to Airborne saying, “I heard Firewing Arms supplied weapons to the Wonderbolts during the War, I have seen a few of the remaining guns in display cases in New Cloudsdale Museum.” Airborne looks at Baleout and says, “How do you know that?” Baleout replies, “I studied what types of weapons and ammo types could be found in the Wastes before we left New Cloudsdale. I figured that knowing these things might be of help down here, maybe there are some useful things inside.” Baleout trots inside while Sunrise collapses onto the ground saying, “I have never flown this far before, just give me a few minutes” Starshine looks at Airborne and says, “I will wait out here with Sunrise, go inside and scout the building out.” Airborne nods and walks inside of the building, the inside of the places smelled of decay. The cement walls of the place were pockmarked with bullet holes; parts of the ceiling had collapsed revealing the dusty brown sky above. Through the broken pieces of steel rebar and piles of aged accumulated dirt the place was still standing after two-hundred years of wind and radiation.

Baleout comes trotting down a well-worn rusted steel stairwell saying, “There’s nopony here, but there is a lot of locked rooms that probably haven’t been opened since the War.” Airborne pushes back the brim of his hat and says, “Well then we will have to open some of the doors and find something useful lying around this place.” Sunrise and Starshine walk through the front door as the storm outside picks up. Starshine closes the door behind her saying, “So, what’s the news? Is there anything in this dump that is worth salvaging?” Baleout nods his head and says, “Yeah for how old this place is it hasn’t been touched.” While Baleout and Starshine build a fire in an old fireplace in one of the offices, Sunrise uses her Pipbuck to detect if there is any residual radiation in the building. Airborne explores the upper floors of the building and manages to unlock the armory door, pushing the door open it collapses off its hinges crashing to the floor with a tremendous thud. Searching the shelves of the armory, most of the weapons had corroded away. The upper receivers on some of the assault rifles had rust so thick that he couldn’t scrape it off with his hooves.

A small wooden box catches his eye; the brass nameplate was still visible. He approaches the box and wipes away the dust from the nameplate which reads, “To Lieutenant Fire Streak for exemplary valor and merit on the battlefield in the face of overwhelming odds, we the...” Airborne can’t read the rest of the inscription. Pushing open the box he pulls out two automatic pistols, one of the pistols has walnut hoofgrip and the other has a hoofgrip made out of applewood. On the slides for the weapons he sees two inscriptions, one that reads Gust and the other reads Thunder. Also inside is a shoulder harness with two holsters and a few magazine pouches. Pulling on the shoulder harness and searches the room for ammo for the guns, eventually he finds a box of .45 caliber bullets and blows the dust off the box. Loading the magazines for the weapons he slides the guns into their respective holsters and places any extra bullets into two magazines he found placing them into the magazine pouches on the harness.

Walking down the stairs he walks into the office, Starshine turns around and sees him saying, “So did you find anything useful in your exploring of this place?” she then sees the two pistols in the holster and says, “I guess you did.” Baleout looks at the pistols and says, “No way! Those are Firewing Forty-Fives! Those are really rare, where did you get those?” Airborne replies, “They were upstairs in the armory just sitting on the shelf inside some old wooden box, there was inscription on the box. They belonged to somepony named Fire Streak.” Baleout’s jaw drops and he says, “Fire Streak was a member of the original Wonderbolts. Nopony knows what happened to him during the War but he was last stationed in Canterlot so he probably died when the city did.” Airborne hands Baleout one of the pistols, Baleout carefully handles the weapon and says, “Dang, that’s heavy they only awarded these to pony’s who were incredibly brave on the battlefield.” Handing the firearm back to Airborne who takes it and places it back inside of the holster thinks to himself, “I wonder just how many of these weapons were awarded during the War? And how many relics are like this that are the only record of these pony’s existence at all?”

The following morning Baleout goes up to the armory and fills his barding with extra ammunition. While Starshine cooks breakfast, Sunrise trots up to Airborne and says, “I don’t think we should stay here any longer than we have to. There are unsafe amounts of radiation in this place.” Airborne looks at her and replies, “We will leave after breakfast, how does that sound?” Sunrise nods and says; “Sounds good to me” she trots over to Starshine and helps her cook breakfast. Baleout walks into the room and says, “I don’t think we will have to worry about running low on ammo for a while I took all of the bullets that I could carrying from the armory.” Airborne grabs a pancake and quickly eats it, Starshine chuckles saying, “Slow down Airborne otherwise we might run out of supplies before we reach Mareston.” Airborne blushes slightly and continues to eat greedily. After breakfast Airborne checks Gust and Thunder for any corrosion. Baleout looks out a broken window and says, “I think the storm cleared up” he then coughs up dust and says, “Dang, there’s more dirt in my lungs than air” he coughs again. Airborne looks at him and says, “I think we should probably wear our breathing masks until the dust settles.”

As they leave the shelter of the factory Airborne looks around, dust and debris swirling around. The storm had swept up the loose topsoil; the root system had been turned to ash by the heat of the balefire bombs. The Geiger counter inside of Sunrise’s Pipbuck began to beep, looking at it she says, “There is a radiation storm brewing to the west, we should avoid flying into the west winds.” Airborne nods and replies, “Good idea, I would rather not turn into a ghoul and spend an eternity trapped inside of my rotting body preying on some innocent pony.” Flapping his wings and soaring back up into the pale Equestria skies; Airborne glides north towards the sea. A couple of hours into their flight they make their way over a long forgotten battlefield. Starshine says, “This must be the Tomb by the looks of this place.” Looking down at landscape that resembles the Moon with so many shell holes scattered about, burnt out remnants of artillery and tanks. Even after two hundred years the place still reeks of death, Baleout looks at the battlefield and says, “I have heard stories about the savagery of the War but I never expect it to be this bad” Baleout tries to suppress the gall rising in his throat as he sees the pearly white bones sticking up out of the torn up land.

As they entered the Tomb Sunrise’s Pipbuck went off, looking at it she says, “This place is saturated with radiation we should find a route that is less dangerous.” Airborne looks behind at her saying, “There isn’t any time, we have to get to Stable 200 before the ghouls down there are alerted to our presence and I don’t want the greatest Pegasus flier team in history to become some meal for the ghouls to feast on” Sunrise sighs and remains quiet. A few hours later they had passed over the battlefield but the reminders of the war didn’t end with the battlefield, large craters and the burnt out buildings that were once villages now stand as mass graves to the lives that were snuffed out by the bombs. As they pass over one of the many large bomb craters Sunrise’s Pipbuck goes off again. Airborne looks at her and she says, “I am sorry; I can’t turn it off after all it is doing its job letting us know that there is radiation down there.” Airborne replies, “Well this is the Wasteland the threat of radiation is everywhere so this is nothing new. Let’s just continue on…” Before Airborne can finish the sentence his eyes role back into his head and he plummets towards the ground. Starshine cries out, “Airborne!” she dives after him flapping her wings as fast as she can, Baleout zips past her and catches Airborne before he slams into a pile of rubble.

Baleout lands gently on the ground as Starshine gallops up to Airborne’s limp body saying, “What’s wrong with him? Why did he pass out?” Sunrise says, “It’s the radiation, he must have absorbed too much of it, we have to treat him right away otherwise well it’s not good to be this way.” Baleout gestures to a partially collapsed building with an intact roof saying, “We can treat him in there” Baleout pulls off his mask and coughs up blood saying, “Damn this is not good” Starshine says, “We better treat you as well otherwise you will end up as bad as Airborne.” Starshine and Baleout drag Airborne’s prone body into the destroyed building and Sunrise pulls out a bottle of Rad-away saying, “Hold his head and open his mouth this could take a while to have some effect.” Starshine cradles Airborne’s head in her lap and strokes his mane; Sunrise looks her and says, “You love him don’t you?” Starshine blushes and nods saying, “I have never told him but I think in his own way he knows.” Sunrise gets up and gives Baleout a healing potion saying, “Here take this, and make sure you drink it all” Baleout takes the potion and drinks it then grimaces saying, “This stuff tastes nasty” Sunrise laughs softly saying, “Well better to drink it than have you coughing up a trail of blood for somepony to follow us” Baleout rolls his eyes and drinks the rest of the contents of the bottle then hands the empty container to Sunrise then shakes the dust out of his mane saying, “This stuff isn’t good for my hair.”

A few hours later Airborne opens his eyes and smiles looking up at Starshine saying, “I am sorry to have worried you” leaning over she kisses his forehead saying, “Next time tell me you have absorbed to much radiation otherwise I would rather not have you turn into a ghoul” Airborne nods and falls back asleep leaning his head against her leg. Baleout walks around the interior of the building and finds a crushed skeleton of a foal under a pile of debris, his eyes widen as he vomits thinking, “This place is messed up. The Wastes are a lot worse than I was told at the Academy.” Baleout walks away from the skeleton and towards the front of the building where he sees Sunrise administering another Rad-away potion to the sleeping form of Airborne. Airborne wakes up several hours later and says, “How long have I been out?” Starshine replies, “I few hours at the most, the Sun was already beginning to set when we came here” looking around Airborne asks, “Where exactly am I?” Sunrise replies checking her Pipbuck, “We are in the ruins of Hockington, we are almost near Mareston.”

Airborne looks around and says, “So, what’s the story of this place?” Baleout replies, “Hockington was a resort town before the War, but it became the site of one of the worst defeats suffered by Equestria during the War.” Airborne sits up then grabs a biscuit out of his utility barding and quickly devours it. Baleout looks at them and says, “We should leave soon. I would rather not stick around for something to find us in this Goddess forsaken place.” Airborne nods and agrees getting up on his hind legs as he stumbles about then shakes the dust from his body saying, “I am good to go when you guys are.” They all leave the building as Airborne stretches his wings and flies weakly into the air with Starshine following behind him.

Once in the air Airborne can smell the salt of the sea and says, “We must be close to Mareston by now.” Entering the skeletal remains of the city, Airborne glides through the canyons of twisted metal and broken glass. Below in the streets piles of rubble block the roads as some of the major buildings had collapsed into the streets when the bombs killed everypony in Mareston. Airborne lands in the streets near a sewer cover saying, “The only way we will be able to reach the Stable is by heading underground. I don’t think we will find the entrance to the Stable above ground with all of rubble blocking our way.” Starshine looks at him and says, “Where exactly is the Stable anyway?” Airborne raises a hoof and points at a large elaborate building at the end of the avenue saying, “That building was the Northern Headquarters of the Wonderbolts during the War. Rainbow Dash told me the Stable is located under it, but the roof has collapsed into the center of the building according to a scout report she had me look at the only way we will be getting into the Stable is through the secondary entrance in the sewers.”

Baleout looks at the sewer hatch and says, “Why was there a secondary entrance built in the sewers?” Airborne replies, “It was built as a way for the occupants of the Stable to have a means of escape should the Stable be compromised but I doubt we will find it opened but that’s alright because I have to codes needed to open it so all we have to do is find the entrance and we are golden.” Baleout shrugs removing the sewer hatch cover saying, “It smells really foul down there” Airborne says, “It might smell bad but we have to go down there if we are to find Stable 200.” Baleout enters the sewers first and makes sure the way is clear; Sunrise follows him down with Starshine close behind. Airborne closes the hatch back into place making sure it is secure so nopony notices they are down in the sewers.

The destruction from above had seeped into the sewers below, Sunrise’s Pipbuck going off like crazy at the toxic vapors wafting through the endless tunnels of the once great city. On a regular basis Sunrise had everypony drink Rad-away to reduce the risk of being tainted by the radiation in the sewers. As Airborne round the bend in the sewers he stumbled over something, falling face first into the water he looks at what he tripped over. A long rasping gasp echoes through the sewers, Airborne levels the barrels of his battle-saddle at the ghoul and fires. As the ghoul collapses into a puddle of its own brains, Airborne turns around to see hundreds of ghouls staring at him with their dull lifeless cloudy eyes. Baleout rounds the corner and yelps saying, “Well this isn’t good.” Baleout fires at point blank range over Airborne’s shoulder, Airborne climbs onto his feet and back up firing at the horde of ghouls pressing in on them. The tunnel filling quickly with crumpled bodies of a half a dozen ghouls, Sunrise screams as Airborne gallops past her with Baleout following close behind. Starshine says, “Sunrise let’s go!” but Sunrise doesn’t move her legs quivering as she sinks to her knees as the ghouls close in for the kill. Baleout grabs Sunrise and wretches her to her feet yelling, “Sunrise if you don’t move we are all dead! Let’s go!” She looks up at him, her eyes unfocused as tears stream down her face, she nods begins to move leaning against Baleout for strength.

Airborne watches as Baleout drags Sunrise down the sewer towards him as Starshine fires at the ghouls. Airborne takes her place and says, “Watch them, make sure Sunrise doesn’t freeze up again otherwise these sewers will be our grave.” She nods and encourages Sunrise to continue onwards. Airborne pulls out a grenade and tosses it into the horde of ghouls; the fiery blast scatters ancient ichor and hooves all over the walls of the sewer tunnel. But the horde steps over the bodies of the fallen and continue to press in on Airborne and his friends. Airborne says angrily, “I have had enough of this!” he fires at the roof of the tunnel as Starshine turns to cover him. Baleout tosses grenades out of his utility barding at the horde as Sunrise cowers behind him. Looking up she sees her companions fight for their lives, she thinks,“I am useless, they are all fighting to protect me but I cannot even protect myself. I am tired of feeling afraid all the time. I want to protect my friends and be helpful!” Sunrise gets on her feet and chops down on the trigger bit for her battle-saddle perforating the nearest ghoul which keels over into the toxic water.

Airborne looks surprised at Sunrise and says, “Now that’s more like it” Sunrise steps next to Airborne saying, “I am tired of being afraid” Airborne says, “We need to get out of here and I would rather not continue to waste bullets on these maggot sacks got any ideas?” Sunrise looks around and sees that one of the ghouls was in life a soldier, around the soldier ghoul’s waist was a grenade and ammo belt. Sunrise fires at the ghoul who explodes spattering Airborne with rotten blood and entrails. The blast collapsed the ancient sewer tunnel, the street above crashing down into the subterranean world below crushing the ghouls underneath ancient bricks and mortar. The water around Airborne’s hooves had turned brackish from the amount of blood spilled from the fight. Airborne looks at Starshine who sighs with relief saying, “Remind me to bring explosives next time we run into a horde of those things” Airborne nods and looks at Sunrise saying, “You did well, I don’t think you have to worry about being afraid out here anymore” Sunrise smiles and trots over to Baleout to have him reload her battle-saddle.

Airborne reloads his battle-saddle and turns from the pile of rubble saying, “Well now that the ghoul problem is dealt with I suggest we get moving before they find a way to get around that pile of garbage.” Airborne takes the lead as Baleout covers the rear as they make their way through the tunnels. Sunrise pulls up a map on her Pipbuck of the world beneath the streets of Mareston saying, “The Stable should be around here somewhere” Airborne looks back at her saying, “Are you sure? Can’t you get a better sense of where the Stable entrance is with that thing?” Sunrise shakes her head, “No it’s hard to say exactly where it is. The map is incomplete so we might have to split up to find it.” Airborne halts as he comes to a fork in the sewers, he gestures to Baleout and Sunrise saying, “You two take the left tunnel while Starshine and I take the right tunnel. If you find it give us a holler I am sure we will hear you down here.” Baleout nods and trots off with Sunrise at his side, Starshine looks at them and says, “They remind me of us back in the day” Airborne snorts, “Was that before or after I became a hero?” Starshine nudges him saying, “Come on you know what I mean, you were always getting into trouble back in the Enclave and for whatever reason I was always right by your side” Airborne replies, “Well I guess things haven’t changed much for us huh?” Starshine doesn’t say anything as Airborne turns and trots down the tunnel.

Baleout and Sunrise wander through the dark corridors of the dead city listening to the scurrying of the rats on the pipes above them. Sunrise turns on the light on her Pipbuck and says, “Do you think anypony got inside the Stable before the bombs dropped?” Baleout looks at her and sadly shakes his head, “I don’t think so, there wasn’t a lot of warning before the bombs fell all around Equestria. So I don’t think even as awesome as the Wonderbolts were they aren’t bombproof.” As they round the corner, he sees a massive door in front of him. Walking up to the door he wipes the years of rust and dirt away from the surface to find that underneath all of the grime the door is intact. He yells, “Airborne, we found it!” A few minutes later Airborne and Starshine appear next to Baleout. Airborne looks up at the massive door with the embossed letters 200 still visible on the metal door turning to Sunrise he says, “The code for the door is C905L69.”

Sunrise trots up to a small terminal hidden inside of the wall. Typing in the code, it takes a few minutes for the ancient terminal to unlock the massive door to Stable 200. As the door opens Airborne is greeted with the sight of two hundred year old cobwebs. Brushing the cobwebs away Airborne steps inside of the Stable, looking around at the impenetrable darkness he says to Sunrise, “I thought these things would have power?” Sunrise looks at her Pipbuck and taps into the Stable’s network. She says, “Power for most of the facilities has been drained there are some systems online but there isn’t much operating right now. The only thing I can tell is that power is being drawn from the emergency backup generators for something, and if I had to guess it is the cryo freezers for the Wonderbolts.” Airborne trots to the far end of the entrance hall and presses his hooves against an old metal door, turning back to Sunrise he says, “Is there any way you can re-route some power here to light this place up? Also is it possible to tell the status of the cryo freezers?” Sunrines replies, “No, not from what I can tell. All I know is that there is power being drawn to a source deep inside the Stable as for the door, give me a moment” Sunrise taps her right forehoof on the small keypad on her Pipbuck and says, “Alright the door should open now, also I deactivated the sentry turrets. I figured we really didn’t need to be killed once we entered the Stable.”

The inner door to Stable 200 opens as the outer door closes with a loud bang. Airborne says, “Well I guess it’s time to find out if coming this way was worth all the trouble we have had to get this far.” Carefully trotting inside of the dimly lit corridor Airborne looks at the graffiti on the walls which reads, “The World is dead, and so are we.” Baleout says, “I guess they were right after being sealed inside of this place I would think the same too” Starshine replies, “Well, let’s hope that the Wonderbolts are still alive I would hate to have come this far just to go back to Rainbow Dash empty hoofed.” Airborne gestures to Starshine saying “See what you can pull up on a terminal. I want to know if there are any other ponies here besides the Wonderbolts also if you can find out what happened to this place” turning to Baleout he says, “I want you to try and unlock the armory, I imagine the Wonderbolts will want their weapons after two hundred years and to be honest they are going to need them.” Starshine says, “Where are you going to be?” Airborne starts to trot down the stairs saying, “I am going to take Sunrise and have her help me unlock the Wonderbolts cryo chambers after all something down here is drawing power and I bet it is the cryo chambers” Sunrise quickly follows Airborne down into the bowels of Stable 200 in the search for the legendary fliers of Equestria and the last heroes of an forgotten age.

Author's Note:

Part two of Fallout Equestria: M.I.A. Enjoy and don't forget to leave a comment and give a thumbs up!

Fallout copyrighted to Bethesda Softworks

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic copyrighted to Hasbro Inc.

Fallout Equestria copyrighted to Kkat.

All other characters are copyrighted to me.