Las Pegasus not Las Vegas

The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 1: Las Pegasus, not Las Vegas

“Special, you're special, you've been selected to partake in an experiment that could potentially save humanity. our destructive nature has caused some horrific situations.

We've fought with each other over some of the more foolish things, but you, you dear *Gender Specification is Male* boy were brought here well before the bombs dropped. You are from a much simpler time, and perhaps that is what we need.

Inside of this place, this Vault, is safe, but outside, outside is a hellish world waiting for you to fix it. Go oh special child, go and claim your destiny.”

The automated voice sounded sincere enough. Slowly, the man opened his eyes to see something far different than a hospital bed. Instead he was inside of some kind of pod that had just opened. Looking to his left, and then right, he noticed others, possibly hundreds of other pods each with someone inside of them. He slowly sat up, and his head began to spin as he tried to make sense of what was going on.

“Dizziness is to be expected, please, take a few moments to adjust to being out of cryogenic sleep, and then proceed to the maintenance bay.”

The voice was obviously a recording he knew that, but it seemed to know what to say, when to say, and it was a little troublesome. He felt the cool floor, practically covered with frost, and instantly he wanted back up off of it, but the pod itself had shut closed. Shivering he moved toward the door, found a blinking green light, pressed it, and the door opened. What he saw next was a long roll of sealed lockers. Each one looked as though they had been hermetically sealed. He saw one with his name, touched it, and when he did a glowing handprint formed over the place where the lock would be.

He placed his hand there, and a moment later it unlatched, and he could hear the sound of air rushing inside. He opened it to reveal a blue and yellow suit of clothes, a pair of black boots, socks, underwear, and a small clipboard. He lifted the clipboard up to see that there was a map of the place he was in, and it had a route that directed him to the maintenance bay. Deciding there was no point staying cold he got dressed, looked at the map, and began following it. On the wall he saw a picture of a blond haired figure, similar to Big Boy from Big Boy Burgers, standing with his thumb sticking up, a smile on his face. It seemed that the figure was damned near everywhere.

The suit of clothes fit him like a second skin. It was oddly similar to the Vault Boy character he'd seen a few times already inside of the vault itself.

"What the fuck is Vault-Tech? Jesus, I just had a car wreck, my family..."

He stopped. Memories of the accident, of the hospital ride, and then barely waking up enough to hear his wife tell him goodbye. Maybe they were still out there, and maybe this was some kind of over the top prank, but more and more he had the feeling that it wasn't.

The sound of servos running the in the distance got his attention and he saw a floating robotic drone with several arms.

"Ah, good morning sir. I am Donald, your Vault-Tech assigned robotic maintenance worker. I see you've already found the Vault-Tech clothes assigned to you," the robotic droid floated toward him, "however you don't appear to have your Pip Boy. Don't worry sir, we shall fix that problem. Follow me!"

Unsure of what else to do, and certainly uncertain of what was going on he followed the robotic droid toward a small room where there was dozens upon dozens of small individually wrapped boxes.

"Ah, now to get you a functioning and operational Pip Boy 3000. Being the first awake we'll start with the best functioning one... Hmmm.. It seems all of the later model Pip Boy's are non functioning, I shall have to contact Vault Tech's customer service about that. Ah, here we go."

The robotic droid lifted a device that looked like it went on the forearm. It easily latched at the wrist, around the forearm, and it felt comfortable. Suddenly several small pricks could be felt from inside of it, and then all of that stopped.

The device sprang to life showing that he was in perfect health, non-irradiated, and then it went on to give his current heart rate, O2 levels, and so on. He flipped through the screens seeing how the device actually knew what he was wearing, that he was unarmed, and finally he stopped what he was doing.

"There we go, a functioning Pip Boy 3000A. An older model, but apparently the only ones working. Dear me... I will have to put in a request for more. Oh well, never mind. Sir, now that I've helped you I must go back to maintenance until I am needed again. Thank you."

With that it floated off, and he was alone. He walked away from the area, seeing a perfectly clean, and spotless environment. He activated his Pip Boy once more, and looked for the date. When he finally found it he nearly fell over. According to this, two hundred and sixty years had passed.

He'd been in the hospital in 2017, and this was saying that it was now 2277. His wife, Sarah, their unborn daughter, everything was gone. Looking at the device he noticed two radio stations. He tuned into the first one, getting old time swing and jazz from the Vault Tech automated radio, but then he found a fainter one. He tuned in and listened for a moment.

"Gentle Mares and Gentle Stallions, this is DJPon3, voice of the Wasteland, coming to you via the last great open spaces left. Now, I know there are many of you asking what's happening with the releasing of the Stable Dweller. Unfortunately there's not much news on that front. I can say that her friends are currently trying to think of a way to get her out, but keep the control of the weather system going. It looks like some long days ahead, but in the meantime, Here's an old Favorite of mine from Sweetie Belle, Hush Now, Quiet Now."

Twenty-four hours later he found himself in the cafeteria, holding a box of twinkies. All of the jokes, every last jab about Twinkies apparently was true. There was no expiration date for them. Thirteen packages beside him were the proof that they were still eatable, and that they still were the spongy little balls of cream that would make a person feel better, and worse, all at the same time.

He wondered if this was it. Was this really what he was meant to do for the rest of his life. Live inside of this sealed tomb, with people that weren't awake yet. There was Donald, but the droid wasn't programmed to have prolonged, and overly complex, dialogue with anyone. It seemed that the droid was simply designed to keep the Vault working, lead the awakened individuals to get their Pip Boys, and instruct them where everything was inside of the vault.

Then there was the radio signal. It came in, talking about the exploits above them. Hell, it wasn't like he wasn't used to violence. He grew up in a Trailer Park, he escaped and made something of himself, and then... Then the car wreck. He shook it off, he couldn't get to thinking about Sarah right now. She was gone, dead, dead for over two hundred years at this point.

It'd be worth seeing what was outside. He walked back down to Donald, deciding to give the droid instructions to close the door, and only reopen when he came back.

The computer room was expansive, Rolls and rolls of servers connected to dozens of terminals, and all of them linked to a huge mainframe that seemed to control all of it. Nearing it his Pip Boy began to get active, and soon he saw the main console spring to life.

It read out several sentences until finally it displayed an area for putting in a password. He saw the mess of code below it, and his Pip Boy was currently decoding it as best it could. He made the attempt, failed, and tried again,. After three tries he put in Vault-Boy(tm), and a panel opened. He, and Donald, followed the secret tunnel until it reached the end, and he could see the entrance of the Vault. The huge steel, gear shaped, door stood closed.

"Sir, I'll active, and close the door as you instructed. I await your return."

Nodding he walked toward the exit, watched as the huge arm fit into the Vault Door, and soon it slid open. He stepped out from it, and looked at the long tunnel ahead of him.

There was dozens upon Dozens of animal skeletons, mostly horses, or small ponies, and their heads were oddly shaped. He stepped toward the very end and that's where he saw it.

The door looked to be something like a street elevator door, the kind that someone would use to load kegs and spirits into the basement of a bar. He grinned as the thought of Shaun of the Dead crossed his mind. He found a control, felt a bit odd that the buttons were oversized, but pushed the one with an arrow pointing up. The creaking sound of the elevator indicated that it was still working, and soon the door opened onto an empty street.

Although empty would be wrong. This was the Vegas Strip. He'd climbed out of poverty here. First starting as security, and then moving up to being a team leader for Vegas Security for Circus Circus. Above him was the name 'Silver Cloud'.

He'd never heard of that one, but feeling that it would be better to start somewhere he stepped inside.

The smell of dust, mold, and old burnt plastic filled the floor of the casino. He coughed a little, but decided to keep walking. His eyes traveled toward a painting, and he shook his head as he looked at it. Some kind of Pony creature, with wings and a horn, that was pink, was lying back, her legs open, obviously giving a perfect view of her crotch. Even with the dim light he could tell that the picture had been touched up, quite a bit, by folks with nothing better to do.

He shook his head, looked around, saw tables for blackjack, poker, roulette, and the all too famous one armed bandits. He moved toward one of them, looked to see a single golden coin on the floor, figuring that it must have been the tokens for the casino, and he put it into a slot machine before pulling the handle.

To his surprise the machine, which had to be at least two centuries old, worked, and it spun a few times before stopping and showing that he had hit a minor jackpot.

Out into the tray spilled about five hundred of those golden coins. He saw an old looking canvas bag, which apparently was designed to look like a saddle bag, and opened it.

He put the coins into it, lifted it over a shoulder, and started walking again.

"I tells ya, I dun't wanna be in here."

"Shutup! Look, there ain't nopony in here to mess with us, and 'sides, what are you 'fraid of?"

"The... the stable dweller."

The sound of the facepalm could be heard, and he hid behind the corner.

"The Stable Dweller? Seriously? She's controlling the weather. Why would she waste her time here? Luna's sweet snatch you're as thick as they come. Why the hell did Cinnamon Twist want you to come with me anyway?"

"Ah, Cream, dun't be like that."

Again, the facepalm had to be epic as he heard it bounce off of the walls.

"Don't call me that!"

"Wat? Dun't call you Cream Pie? That's yer name right?"

He couldn't help it. For one, the 'smarter' sounding of the two was obviously a woman, and her name was Cream Pie. He felt the snickering build up a laugh, and it escaped.

"Horse Apples! Somepony's here!"

Unsure of what to do he moved deeper into the dark, and waited. That's when he saw them. Two 'pony' shaped beings, his eyes widened, this had to be wrong.

"Cream wat was that?"

"Salty, if I knew what it was, I'd tell you!"

The 'girl' or 'mare' had a horn, and it slowly lit up around her. He could see a soft gray coat, white mane, and an angry expression.

"How come you wanted to come out here? I thought you liked that farm."

She huffed, "I do like my rock farm. I was born there, my mom was born there, all of the way back to my ancestor Limestone Pie was born there, but right now I'm looking for whatever made that noise!"

"Sorry..."

"Salty, just go look somewhere else."

She groaned, moving further in, and then the sound of something moving again caught her attention. from under her armor a weird shaped handgun appeared. She aimed it, uncertain of where to aim it at, and then something moved that surprised her.

He didn't expect to see something like a huge scorpion, and he certainly didn't expect to see it launch itself at the pony. He cursed himself, unsure if this was a good idea or not, and grabbed the closest thing to him, which happened to be an old pony shaped mannequin, and began swinging away at the creature. It made a screeching noise, turned toward him and he hit it again, hard, several times, while screaming.

All that would hear this story later on would hear two versions. The valiant stable/vault dweller that came to the aid of an unknown mare, and the other would be of the stable/vault dweller that screamed like a filly as he smashed a bug with a mannequin over and over again.

Moments after the death of the giant scorpion the two looked at each other. The other's green eyes looked surprised, a little uncertain, and slowly the gun moved.

"Are you some kind of mutated Minotaur or something... You're a Stable Dweller?!"

"A what now?"

She looked at him in a mixture of fear and surprise.

"Oh Rut me, Rut me with a twelve inch rubber dick! No, wait don't!"

He looked confused, "Aren't you human?"

The word caught her attention. Slowly she neared him. She'd heard stories, about the Crystal Empire, the mirror, the world on the otherside. Could he be one of those things? But if that was the case, why didn't he look like a pony?

"No, I'm a pony, an unicorn, and you're deep in Las Pegasus pal. Don't you realize this is slaver territory? Salty, Cinnamon, and myself recently escaped from them. I mean sure, we had been raiders, but we just want out of here."

He wasn’t sure what would be the best course of action. She was talking about an entire civilization he had no clues about, slavery, raiders, and all of it was starting to get to be a bit much. He could go right back downstairs, to the Vault, go back inside, and pretend this wasn’t happening. Yep, go right back inside… With Donald for company, until the others woke up, if they ever work up.

That said there wasn’t too much of a choice. He’d go insane down there by himself, but what about them? Maybe…

“Cream ya ain’t gonna believes this! There’s a stable down in the basement! It’s huge! It’s… What in a Bat Pony rutting Celestia’s sweet succulent tail hole is that?!”

“Salty, calm down, it, err, sorry, he saved me from a radscorpion.”

Salty, he noted, was a pegasus with one wing. The gash on his back made it look like it hadn’t been carefully removed, but rather something tore it off of him.

“What in Celestia’s reamed out tailhole are you?”

“He’s a human.”

Salty looked at her, “Like the Crystal Empire thing-a-majig?”

She nodded, and hearing the mention of the Crystal Empire, in connections with indications ‘Salty’ made caused him to wonder if there was more humans there. At least if there was he could find out what was going on. Did humanity mutate into ponies, or did ponies somehow gain the ability to reason and act with logic? Hell, when did unicorns and pegasi exist?!

“Do you know if there are more… people like me in this Crystal Empire?”

Cream looked again him again. He noticed that there wasn’t a thing on her that even resembled cream. Her white hair, or mane rather, maybe could be considered cream gravy colored, but that wasn’t quite right either. It was almost too pure of a white, and her fur was more along the lines of looking like a piece of granite. She cleared her throat and shook her head.

“I doubt it. Look, I don’t know much about the place. What I do know is that there’s some kind of mirror there, and that mirror connects to another world. I’m not sure, but I don’t think that it works right, because the ponies, or people, or whatever you call them over there refer to Twilight Sparkle, the mare over the Ministry of Science, as a princess,” she laughed, “Twilight Sparkle wasn’t anything other than an overworked unicorn.”

The sound of a door opening got their attention, and the three of them took to the darken hall.

“We know you’re in here! Just know, when I find ya, I’ve got a few special treats for ya in mind! Maybe being thrown to a manticore in heat will be the start of it!”

“Cream, what do we do?”

She turned to look at the Vault dweller, “Can you get us in down there?”

He looked at her, “Yeah, I should be able to… why?”

She breathed out, looking defeated, “Because being in a deathtrap Stable is better than whatever those cockwhistles have in mind for us.”

“I got out through the street elevator.”

A quick look in that direction told all three of them that wasn’t an option. There was two large ponies over there, on of which seemed to be holding a pistol in its mouth.

“Salty, you said you saw it in the basement?”

He nodded, “Uh huh.”

She looked at him and nodded, “Lead us there.”

They inched forward, only to stop when a short mare dressed in armor made from old rubber bumpers off of the ends of the tables jumped up on the table behind them.

“Awww, come out. I’ll totally make it worth your while to. I promise, I won’t let those big bad Earth Ponies throw you to the manticores. Nope, I’m going to get a nice, long, thick strapon and do it myself.”

He looked around, touched his Pip Boy, and when he did there was a sound that caused the mare above them to scream and fall down like something was stabbing her in the head. He looked to see Cream not doing any better and turned it off.

“They’re over here idiots!” the mare screamed.

Not sure of what else to do, he grabbed the mare, lifted her up, and held her in front of him. Epinephrine flowed through his veins, her weight, which he figured had to be fairly heavy, wasn’t anything at the moment, and the two big stallions stopped where they were.

“Move and I’ll snap her neck.”

One of the stallions grinned, stepping forward, and laughed.

“Go ahead, we’ll just take that mare you got. No big loss.”

The mare went still in his arms. Then she began to violently wiggle.

“YOU COCKSUCKING, ARSEBUCKING, COUSINRAPING INBRED TAILHOLE EXPLORERS WOULD LET THIS BUCKING THING KILL ME?! OH, BOTH OF YOU CAN SUCK MY TAILHOLE!”

In truth he wasn’t sure that he could even do it. Hurting another being didn’t seem high on his priorities, especially since he was just getting a lay of the land. He looked at the mare, then at Cream, and finally Rusty. With few options he dropped the mare, grabbed ahold of the gun that Cream had put back in its holster, and took aim. He felt something, something odd, and then he sensed it again. His Pip Boy activated and suddenly the two stallions ahead of him slowed down.

He could see the percentage of hitting them, where the most accurate shots could be, and he aimed at their heads. Pulling on the strange trigger, which seemed to work like a handle grip for a weed-eater, or maybe a strange switch for a lamp, he unleashed the bullets toward their targets. The first shot caught the first stallion in the head, under the right eye, and exploded out the back of his head painting the slot machine behind him with his gray matter. The second shot caught the stallion behind him in the throat, tearing out his windpipe, causing him to fall to the ground gasping and gurgling for air.

He turned toward the mare that was looking at him in absolute horror.

“To Tartarus with this!”

She ran back toward the stage, behind it, and was soon gone. Breathing out, he tried to figure out what happened exactly. Looking at his Pip Boy he saw that it was still activated. Currently it was on something called V.A.T.S.or Vault-Tech Assisted Targeting System. He moved toward the notes on it, quickly, and watched as it came up.

“Welcome to Vault-Tech! Mr. and Mrs America are counting on you to reclaim our once great land, and of course to help repopulate it. This is your Vault-Tech Assisted Targeting System, or V.A.T.S. The V.A.T.S. gives any user of a Pip Boy the advantage of finding their target’s most vulnerable spots, and of course giving you most likely chance of making a direct hit. Your V.A.T.S. has been set to automatic, and it will activate when you are prepared to battle with your targets. Know that the V.A.T.S. system works with all manner of weapons including yourself.”

He sighed, so he was fine, and apparently the Pip Boy was giving him near super human abilities when it came to targeting and fighting enemies. But then again who really were enemies? He looked at the two beside him, both seemed a little bewildered, and Cream was the first to talk. A faint green glow covered the pistol, and she took it back.

“Never touch anything of mine without permission first! But.. Thanks for saving us there.”

The three of them moved toward the basement, and on the way down he got to see cockroaches the size of poodles, which Cream was calling them Radroaches. Once there he activated the panel on the outside.

“Donald, open up.”

“Of course sir.”

The door slowly opened and Cream looked at the floating droid. Both she and Salty entered and then once they were inside the vault sealed again.

“Welcome back sir. I’m afraid that I must attend to my duties again, but if you need my assistance I will be in the maintenance bay.”

With that Donald floated off, and Salty let out a whistle.

“Damn, ain’t never seen a place so clean and purty.”

“Let’s find this Stable’s armory and go from there.” Cream said.

Realizing that maybe getting a gun would have been a good thing, he nodded. Looked like he was going to be talking to Donald again soon enough.

Traveling Song

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The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 2: Traveling Song

Donald had once again proved his usefulness as he showed the three of them where the armory was located. Once Donald inputted the maintenance override the door opened with an audible hiss, and there before them was a collection of weapons. Walking forward he saw handguns that looked a bit more comfortable to use. He looked at the weapons and realized that while there was a ton of weapons, there didn’t seem to be much ammo.

“Donald, where’s the ammunition?”

“Sir, I’m afraid that the parameters of this Vault’s experiment was to keep live ammunition to a minimum.”

He let out a groan of annoyance. So, they believed it was a good idea to keep people from being able to protect themselves. Maybe it was so that they didn’t kill each other, but he had a feeling that it was possibly more sadistic than that. Looking around he found twenty rounds for a single ten millimeter pistol. Deciding that it was better than nothing he found a holster for it, strapped it on, and put the gun into it.

“Donald, would our personal items from before we were placed in the Vault be in those lockers?”

The droid turned to face him, “No, actually they would be in the Vault repository. If you will follow me please.”

Following the droid they went past the room where he woke up, the lockers, and finally found a large room. Once more Donald put in his code, and when it opened there was a wall of small safety-deposit boxes. He walked toward the hand-print reader, pressed his palm against it, and a single box, on the opposite end of the wall, opened. He walked toward it and opened it to reveal a MP3 player, a gift from Sarah, a pair of earbuds, and he picked it up.

Suddenly his Pip Boy began to beep at him. He looked at it and noticed that it had detected his MP3 Player, even though it was dead as a doornail. He looked around the Pip Boy and found a place for a USB plug. Slipping the MP3 Player into it the Pip Boy then asked if he wanted to move six gigabytes of sound files into the reserve memory. Doing so would leave him two hundred fifty-two terabytes, ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-four gigabytes of open storage. Unsure if he would ever even find a “AA” battery to operate his MP3 player he selected yes, and a single beep less than a second later informed him that the move was complete.

“Donald, I’m going to put this back into my box. Then I’m going to go back out again. Is anyone else closer to waking up?”

The Droid floated for a moment, almost seemingly unsure of how to answer before it faced him, “Sir, I’ve noticed a familiar spike in three of other other pods. The same thing happened to your pod before you were awakened.”

“Great, how long until they wake up?”

The droid seemed to stop and consider for a moment, “It was eight months, two days, and sixteen hours between those spikes and your awakening.”

“Better question, Donald: when did you record those spikes?”

Again the droid seemed to stop, consider an answer, and although there was no way for it to show emotion he was wondering if the droid was getting irritated that he kept asking it questions it had to stop and consider.

“The spikes were recorded forty-eight hours ago. Which, if the time between spikes and the awakening remain constant they will awaken in eight months and sixteen hours. Is there anything else that I can help you with sir?”

I shook my head no, “No, but thank you Donald.”

“You’re very welcomed sir, again, if you need me I will be in the maintenance bay.”

With that the droid floated out of the room, down the hall, and back toward the maintenance bay. He had eight months until three more people woke up. He’d been to the outside, and while it was certainly dangerous, to some degree, he wouldn’t go insane from waiting. He felt the bag, which turned out to be saddlebags, on his shoulder. There was still all of those gold coins, which Cream had said was prewar money called bits.

She insisted that they keep it for trade, or use it for any Sparkle Soda Machines. He was a little confused, and she explained that trade was done in bottlecaps. Trading bottlecaps seemed silly as hell, but if that was what passed for money, then so be it. Salty offered to carry the saddlebags, which had a weird marking on the side of it.

“What does that mean?” he asked as he pointed to the bag.

Cream looked at it, and then looked back him like he had grown a third head, “You don’t know what a cutie mark is?”

He shook his head. She sighed, turned around, and showed him her own mark. It was a pie, cream pie of some kind, balancing on a rock. She looked back up at him, which almost looked like she was about to explain something to a child and shook her head, “Everypony gets a cutie mark. It’s what tells them what they’re best at doing, sort of like a guideline for the destiny. I’m good at making pies or working on a rock farm. Salty over there got his cutie mark burned off, and took the cutie mark of Rainbow Dash. I guess that he’s saying he’s a Dashite or something. It’d make some sense. Although he isn’t an element of loyalty like Calamity.”

“Hey! Imma a great friend. I ain’t left you behind ‘xept twice, and that’s cause I thought you was a running ahead of me!”

He felt the weight of the pistol, and the two clips for it.

“Think that we might get some more ammo out there?” he asked.

Cream Pie rubbed her jaw for a moment, “Actually, if we can make it out of Las Pegasus we could hit up an Enclave trading post. Although with the exception of Salty, and a few other Pegasi I know, I don’t exactly trust them. Plus, they’re usually higher than everypony else. But, they’re the only ones that I’ve seen that carries guns that look kind of like that one.”

Salty looked around in the Vault for a moment, “Ya know, we might could get some good trade stuff from down here. I dun’t wanna leave nothin’ for those ponies that’s gonna wake up, but we could get some stuff to trade up there.”

“What about Twinkies?”

They looked at him, and he grinned. Leading them to the cafeteria he pulled out a box of Twinkies, opened a package, and then opened a package. He looked at them both and laid the yellow sponge cake, filled with its delicious cream, in front of Cream Pie. She floated it up to eye level, took a bite, and then instantly crammed the rest of it into her mouth. Her eyes widened, a smile crossed her muzzle, and she floated another three out of the package, opened them with her magic, and proceeded to cram the things down as fast as she could.

Seeing that Cream Pie was enjoying the little yellow cakes Salty took one, ate it, his eyes widened, and his entire muzzle went into the cardboard box digging more of them out. Since they obviously loved the little sponge cakes it made sense to take a few boxes for trade. He looked back in, seeing that over a third of the kitchen for the cafeteria had actually been stocked with nothing but Twinkies.

Unfortunately the boxes themselves were a little large, and he could only fit about two boxes of them into each saddlebag, which meant that Cream Pie could carry four, and his unused saddlebag could carry two, so they were taking six along with them. It’d be better than nothing, and with any luck it’d be all they need. He started to leave when he saw something else. He’d completely missed them before, but there was a few cases of Nuka-Cola. He remembered how they used to drink and he grabbed one a piece of himself, and both Salty and Cream.

He walked out, they loaded the Twinkies, although Cream insisted that they loot another box just for them, for supplies, in case they got hungry. With that decision made he handed them the bottle a piece and both of them looked at him, then at the drink, and then at him again. It was Cream that finally put words to what she was thinking.

“How many of these are there?”

He looked at her, “Several, but I think that leaving them here would be best. That way we could return and get some more if we need them. Besides, there’s going to be more people waking up before long.”

She seemed to grumble about that, the idea of leaving it behind, but since they couldn’t carry it, yet, she agreed. Once more he found Donald, informed him that they were heading out again, to please lock the Vault Door, and open it back up when he returned. Donald agreed, and once they were out the Vault Door slid into place.

Walking toward where he had went before the three them arrived at the street elevator. Two button pushes later it lowered back down, they got on it, and it raised back up to the street. There before them was a less dark burned out city. What he’d seen before had been marred by darkness, but now he could see the full effect. Dozens of casinos had been ruined by a blast, pieces of them were completely open to the elements.

It was a different circumstance, but it reminded him of pictures he’d seen of buildings in Europe from World War II. That war torn region left from the attack by the Nazis after the Blitzkrieg wasn’t so different from the destruction done here, if anything those images from World War II looked more tame in the amount of destruction. Even the casino he’d entered last night looked terrible. In a way he was surprised that the doors even opened. His companions seemed interested with hanging around with him to at least the Enclave trading post.

Figuring that they could use some kind of music, and flipping on his Pip Boy only to pick up the similar music he heard earlier, he decided to go through his collection of music from the MP3 player. Not sure what he wanted to listen to he just selected one at random, and waited for the sounds to escape the wrist worn device.

Cream’s ears perked at the sound of this unheard song. The music was a comfort as they walked, and by the second chorus Cream Pie was singing along with it. As they walked he’d hear a soft beep, and he looked down to see small red dots, usually grouped together, near places. He took a look, and noticed that his Pip Boy had actually taken down the location of where they were, and actually took the name it was known as.

“I think there’s some trouble this way,” he said.

Cream Pie listened, and her eyes widened.

“Slavers, quick down an alley!”

The three of them moved down the alley and hid behind a dumpster. The sound of hooves on broken pavement echoed around them.

“I don’t see them!”

The male voice was enough to tell him that it was a stallion and not a mare.

“Lemon said that thing took out Crusty and Smooth. I think she said it was dressed like the Stable Dweller.”

“Woah, woah, woah, nopony said a motherplucking thing about the stable dweller!”

“For somepony that used to be part of the Enclave you’re pretty jumpy about that mare.”

He listened as the two talked. He wasn’t sure how close he could sneak to them, but if he could get close enough he could get a good look at how many there was. Slowly, silently, and carefully he began sneaking out, inching his way toward the mouth of the alley. When he looked out he saw two stallions, one of them a Pegasus, and the other an Unicorn. The unicorn was wearing an eye patch over his right eye. He could see a long thin scar that started just above the patch in his tan coat and then went a few inches under it.

The Pegasus didn’t look half as haggard as the Unicorn did. For the most part he looked well fed, his blond mane was cut short, almost a military style buzz cut, and his robin’s egg shell blue coat looked well cared for. The armor he wore looked of a better quality. Enough that he was certain his ten millimeter pistol wasn’t going to do much unless he got a head shot.

He heard a female voice, one that he heard before and he saw the same mare from before.

“Surprise, Astral, what are the two of you doing arguing?”

The Pegasus ruffled up, his wings fluttering in place, “He said that the stable dweller is here!”

She facehooved, “No, not that stable dweller Surprise. That stable dweller has caused the sky to open up, remember the broadcasts?! No, he’s dressed like her, and he can shoot like her.”

“That’s not helping! She took out six warships! Six of them! I’m…”

He didn’t even get to move before she slapped him hard across the jaw knocking him to the ground.

From where he was he could see the other stallion, the Unicorn, moving away from the mare. Apparently the mare, which he could tell now was an unicorn with a cut off horn, was tired of his whining.

“Listen up Surprise Storm, you’re going to stallion up, or I’m going to doll you up and make you into one of our street walkers outside of Las Pegasus! Do you understand me?! That… Thing, whatever he is, can still be shot, killed, but I don’t want that!” she growled as she backed up, “I want him caught so I can learn about where he came from, see if there’s anything else he might have of value.”

And letting her go seemed to be an incredibly stupid idea. He looked at them, raised his pistol and suddenly the V.A.T.S. came online. He had a fifteen percent chance of hitting the pegasus’ head, not good enough, only a five percent chance of hitting her neck, and he couldn’t even get a percentage on the other stallion. With the percentages that bad he knew when to cut losses.

The major problem was since they had a pegasus, if not more, that could fly then hiding for any length of time was going to be an issue. There was the idea of going into the sewers, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was down there. If there was scorpions the size of great danes who knew what rats looked like, and he remembered from an experience growing up just how vicious a sewer rat could be. Nope facing a sewer rat that was as big as a large dog was not on his todo list today.

Instead he moved, silently, back toward Cream and Salty.

“Any suggestions on how we cut through this?”

Cream Pie looked down the alley, and like him she knew they were there. She then looked on either side of the alleyway, and for once the fates seemed to have smiled by leaving a door available to them. He saw what she was looking at and took a closer look. The lock was a little different, but pretty close to the old locks from back home. He checked the dumpsters, being quiet, and found a screwdriver and a small box with about four bobby pins in it.

It wasn’t the best equipment for picking a lock, but he knew that beggars couldn’t be choosers. He started and right off a bobby pin broke. Crusing to himself he got the broken piece out, started again, and slowly made progress until the lock clicked. He grabbed the handle, which was in the middle of the door weirdly enough, and pushed it open after turning it. Once inside he closed the door and relaxed. He heard a beep and looked at his Pip Boy.

He saw the screen indicating that he was in near total darkness, and it wanted to know if he would like to use his Pip Boy as a flashlight. He followed the directions, and soon a semi bright light flooded the area. It didn’t go far, but it was enough to cast some light around him, and he almost wished that he hadn’t.

Being around Cream and Salty had shown him that he was in a land of ponies being able to talk. He was still wrapping his head around that, but in someway he had come to believe that they were mutated humans. Somehow developed to endure and survive. It didn’t explain the horse puns, but it was enough to keep him sane. Still around him he saw evidence of cruelty that made him sick. There was cages, six of them, and all of them had ponies like Cream and Salty. He looked at them, seeing them breath, seeing them look sad, and his heart went out to them. Slowly he moved toward them, and one turned toward him.

Her mane had once been green and white, she was obviously an unicorn, her golden eyes still seemed bright, and her face was like the rest of her body, and it was covered in patch mint green fur. Her eyes lit up and even confined she began to dance in place. Her voice, which sounded surprisingly sweet for what appeared to be an animated corpse, sounded truly excited.

“A HUMAN! I KNEW IT! A HUMAN!”

Her horn started to light up but then something on it caused it to fizzle out and the shock sent her straight to her haunches.

“Ow! Stupid magic nullifier!” she looked at him again in pure excitement, “Wow! A human! I told everypony that you existed! I knew it! I just knew it!”

Cream marched up closer to her, “Be quiet you twit!”

The once completely mint green unicorn stuck her tongue out at her and gave Cream Pie a raspberry.

He checked the locks, they didn’t look difficult, but being that he had a whopping two bobby pins left he didn’t even try to unlock the cages. Instead he believed that there had to be a key. From the look of it they were in some kind of storage room, and if this was like the casinos back home that meant that on the other side of the wall would be offices, security rooms, and of course a key room. It’d be a long shot, but maybe, just maybe whoever had put these ponies here would still be using the key room as the key room.

“Shh, I’m going to look for a key, and get all of you out,” he whispered.

The trapped strange looking unicorn nodded.

With that he moved toward the wall, walked, and finally found the door into the casino’s office areas. He slowly opened it and heard crying.

“Please stop…” the female voice said.

“Big bad purple Alicorn, and you’re afraid of an Earth Pony mare…” the other voice said.

He moved down to where the sound was coming from and there was a larger pony thing. It had some kind of binders on the back, something that he supposed could have been used to keep wings trapped, and on its head, on its horn was another ring like the one on the weird looking Unicorn.

The room wasn’t the key room, at least not according to most of the layouts he’d seen, so it wasn’t like he needed in that room. He tried to move past that room, to forget it, but the sounds of that poor creature got to him. He slowly opened the door, and when he did the hinges decided to announce to the world that he was opening it. The Earth Pony mare turned toward him. Her eyes narrowed in a vicious scowl, she reached down with her mouth and grabbed a gun similar to the one that Cream had, and before she got it up he raised his pistol.

His V.A.T.S. came on in an instant and he saw a ninety-nine percent chance of hitting that mare in the right eye. He pulled the trigger, and a moment later the slaver lay dead. He moved toward her, and then looked at the frightened larger pony. She had this weird fading in and out cutie mark of a large violet star surrounded by five other smaller stars. He hoped that he wasn’t making a mistake, and removed the ring from its horn.

The larger pony looked at him in confusion, but then it looked at the binders and focused on them. A moment later they ripped off and fell to the floor. A happy nicker came from her as she danced in place. She looked at him again, the cutie mark brighter and completely in sight. She looked curious more than anything as she neared him.

“It’s okay girl, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said as he neared her.

The idea that this was an intelligent being, easily capable of complex thought, and certainly as intelligent as himself had disappeared. Instead what he had seen was a frightened animal. An annoyed expression crossed the larger pegacorn’s face as she looked at him.

“I can kind of tell that you’re not going to hurt me. You let me go.”

He stepped back seeming a little confused and gave a sheepish grin, “Sorry.”

She sighed and shook her head, “It’s fine. Thank you, and… just what are you?”

He groaned, “This question again. I’m a human…”

He didn’t know where the sheets of scroll paper, or the quill and ink well came from, but she was scribbling down notes. He watched as she finished, walked toward him, and cocked her head to the side.

“Hmmmm, human, bipedal male, similar to a minotaur, but missing the muscle mass, hooves, horns, bull features. This is very interesting…”

He shook his head, looked at the dead slaver and decided to check her. If nothing else he’d have an extra weapon and some ammunition for it. The gun was certainly similar to the one that Cream had, but he could deal with that. He took it, her holster, found about fifteen rounds on her, and then he saw it, a key ring. He lifted it off of her, noticing that there was only a couple of keys, and guessing that they had to be for the cages. He looked back at the purple pegacorn and cleared his throat.

“There are some others trapped back in a room I came from, I’m going to let them out. You’re welcome to come with me, or go on your way, whatever works for you.”

She stopped scribbling long enough to rub her chin with the quill, getting a small black mark on her fur.

“I’ll come with you. This is a chance to study a brand new species!”

“Great…” he said as he walked out with her following.

“Oh, I didn’t introduce myself, I… Well once I was a Unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, and I was some others too, but I’m mainly Twilight, so I’m going to go by Twilight. What’s your….oh my…”

He knew she saw the cages, and he went around unlocking them. Some of the ponies trapped inside stumbled out, others simply looked up, unable to move, so wore down and broken they had given up all hope. Without being asked she began floating those out of their cages, and then he unlocked the last one.

The blur of green that tackled him was beyond words. She grabbed his hands with her magic.

“A HUMAN!”

“I… I know you don’t I?” Twilight asked.

The green Unicorn looked up at her, her face seemed a little unsure for a moment before she moved toward her.

“Twilight?”

The Alicorn nodded.

“It’s me, Lyra, Lyra Heartstrings, we used to be friends, back in Canterlot, before you moved.”

“Lyra?”

There was a snort and he saw Cream Pie.

“Great, there’s a lot of introductions and everypony is doing great, so are we going to start a lesbian orgy, or can we please get out of slaver territory before they catch us again?”

A New Home

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The Vault Dweller: A Fallout In Equestria Story

Chapter 3: A new Home

Traveling with Cream Pie and Salty had been difficult enough. He knew that it was better to have a group, others to depend on, to help lookout, and keep a person sane by being able to talk. But now that there was ten of them together, well, it made moving even more difficult, especially since three of them were so broken that they barely did anything.

He looked at them, one had bandages where wings had once been. A pegasus without wings, and from what he could see in Salty’s expression that was a terrible thing. Salty still had a wing, but he couldn’t fly. Part of him wondered if there was a way to make a prosthetic wing that would return the power of flight to him. He knew there had been massive movements in prosthetics before his car wreck.

He could remember a man actually getting a set of functioning arms and hands for his missing limbs. They had linked them up to work on impulses, and it seemed to do what he wanted, most of the time, and he seemed delighted to have them. Maybe things progressed some. If that was the case then it could be possible for Salty to fly again. Maybe that mare could again as well.

“Why?”

He turned back toward the sound and saw the mare he was thinking about. Her seafoam green coat and white mane looked matted, and there was lashes up and down her back. Her cutie mark, the one that hadn’t been burned, was of a cloud in the shape of a pony. She looked away from him when he looked at her.

“Why what?”

Slowly she faced him, but her eyes never looked up at him, “Why did you take us? Are… Do you want us to be your slaves?”

He stopped. He heard an annoyed grunt from Cream, but that didn’t matter.

“No, I don’t take slaves. I’m freeing you. I want you to have your own lives.”

She looked confused. Her eyes moved to Lyra who looked positively giddy. Sensing that somepony was looking at her Lyra looked back at the Pegasus and gave her a soft smile.

“He wants to let you have choices.”

She shook her head, like the words were foul.

“No, NO! They do things if we have choices! They took my wings!”

Before her freakout could get worse Lyra had her in a hug, holding her, rubbing her mane, letting the mare cry it out. She looked toward him and shook her head.

“What happened?” he asked.

Lyra held her until she calmed down. She ignored the annoyed sounds and looks coming from Cream Pie, and instead gave him a soft smile.

“She wasn’t quite yet a mare when she came down. I was traveling around a bit,” she gave a small laugh, “See, I had been in Canterlot when the mega spell hit. I was visiting Lemon Hearts, Minuette, and Twinkle Shine there. The Pink Cloud,” she stopped when she saw his confusion, “Oh, right, you wouldn’t know. It was a cloud that covered everything. Anything it touched died. The four of us ran as fast as we could, but it covered us. Twinkle Shine and Minuette just died. I thought that I was dead too, and maybe Lemon Hearts was, but it ended up that we weren’t. It just… changed us.”

She gave a small laugh again, “We found out that we could walk around in that stuff, and we’d be fine. We thought about our other friends, and I of course thought about Bon Bon. She was working for Stable-Tech, and she had been helping prepare the stable in Canterlot. I think she got in. I like to think that she got in,” she shook her head, “Anyway, We traveled around Canterlot, looking for any of our other friends, I found Moondancer in her new home,” she giggled a little, “It’s not funny, not really, but her hooves and nose had merged with a book she had been reading. She always had her nose in her books, but it looked like she’d always have it in there. Anyway, we left, and headed toward Ponyville. It wasn’t as bad there, not really, not quite yet. Lemon Hearts suggested that maybe we should split up, go looking for anypony we knew that might be like us, or still okay. That was the last I saw of her…” she shook her head a little as she held the Pegasus Mare, “Anyway, fast forward a bunch of years and I’m making my cross Equestria tour for the seven hundredth time and I happen to get close to Las Pegasus. Well, I see this pretty teenage filly land, and I knew what had happened in Las Pegasus. I tried to warn her, but somepony jumped and slipped a magic nullifier on me, and they caught her. We’ve been here for a couple of years now.”

He looked at the mare who shook. He knelt down near her, unsure if there was really anything he could say that would make a difference, but he was willing to try.

“Hey, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I can promise you that I’ll do everything I can to help make sure that no one, no one ever makes you a slave again. You’re free, and I’ll make sure that you stay that way.”

She looked up at him, her violet eyes full of pain and hurt, and then she looked away.

“She’s just going to need time. Those three are going to need a lot of time,” Lyra replied.

“Ugh! I’m sorry, and I know I’m about to be as popular as a cock in a tailhole, but we need to be moving. If the Slavers find us I can promise that your promise will mean exactly minotaur shit. We need to be out of here, outside of Las Pegasus, and traveling as far away from here as possible,” Cream Pie said.

“Wow, you’re angry,” Twilight replied.

She looked toward the Alicorn, her eyes narrowed, and she marched over to her, “You haven’t seen angry! Ugh! All of you are idiots!”

“Cream, it ain’t like…”

She glared at Salty before he could finish, “I get it. Bad things happen. These ponies do bad things, lots of bad things, and we’re managing to get out. Cinnamon… She’s stuck back there, but she helped us to get out, and we’ve got to get out! We can’t go back! We can’t cause then she’s gonna to have… I won’t let Cinnamon have died for nothing!”

She pushed Salty away, “We need to get moving…”

“What do you mean died?”

She looked up him, as he stood there, “What do you mean died?”

She looked away, “She’s in one of the slavers camps. It’s the one we escaped from. She came up with the plan, the idea to get out, and she told me that one of us would have to stay behind to make sure it worked. I thought that she meant me, but she pushed me out and told me to get to the surface and out of Las Pegasus.”

“Surface… You were in the sewers?!”

She nodded, “We came out in the basement of that casino you were in. The Slavers are either selling the slaves, or having them work ripping anything that’s useful out of the casinos before coming back down.”

They needed out, he knew it, but knowing that they had more of them locked away, in the sewers, where he was sure there was rats the size of Saint Bernards, that was bothering him. He’d seen cruelty, and he couldn’t live with himself if he was part of it, and he knew that if he did nothing then he’d be part of it.

“Let’s get to that trading post, and once we do, I’m going to do something, something that’s most likely going to be epically stupid.”

He felt a few looks his way, but his mind was made up. He couldn’t just let this go. It’d feel wrong to simply let it go, and besides, if he could make things better for a few of them then it would be a great start. Despite everything else he still wanted to head to this Crystal Empire, but first things first. He was going to make this better. Slowly they cut through the allies, the casinos, staying as quiet as possible. It was after a few hours of their moving that they had to cross the courtyard of a burned out hotel.

He knew that if they were going to be spotted it would be here. He looked up, not seeing anything right away, waved toward the others and then looked at Cream and Salty. It was Twilight that came near them and she looked at everything in front of them. He felt something odd around him, and he looked to see his entire body glowing violet, almost purple, and then in a blink they were on the other side of the hotel.

“What in the hell was that?” he asked.

“What? I just teleported us. I wasn’t sure I could do everypony, but it looks like I could.”

Cream walked toward her, and he could see how she was almost gritting her teeth.

“You could have done this at any time?”

She cleared her throat and backed up, “Ummm… Maybe, I remember doing it before….”

Cream stood there, shaking, her eyes narrow, her teeth gritting hard, “You could have teleported us across Las Pegasus at any time and instead we’ve been trying to keep quiet?!”

He looked at them, and then up. He was certain that if the slavers didn’t know they were there before it was a certainty they did now. He looked at them, walked toward Cream Pie and stood between the two.

“We don’t have time for this. You said it before, we need to get out of Las Pegasus, so let's get out of Las Pegasus!”

She glared up at him, and then turned away, “Lets go.”

The group moved again, and to her credit Twilight did teleport them once more, but she said that teleporting into a building was a little tricky, and she didn’t want to keep pressing their luck and accidentally teleport somepony halfway into a wall. He activated his Pip Boy and brought up the map. According to it they were nearly outside of Las Pegasus, and that meant once outside of it they could relax.

They moved, once more, and managed to see what separated Las Pegasus from everything else. He looked at the wall, the barely guarded wall, and it was Lyra that walked near him.

“Okay, any suggestions?”

Lyra started to open her mouth when a deafening sound could be heard and something sent her tumbling. He looked around to see an unicorn holding a lever action rifle in his magic. It looked, and seemed to operate like any lever action he’d ever seen, but it was obvious that it packed a punch. He jumped, pulled his weapon and the V.A.T.S. came online for him. Suddenly he saw the percentages of where he could hit him. A head shot was only about thirty percent, but a body shot was currently seventy-five, and that was good enough.

He fired off two rounds with the gun he had gotten off of the slaver earlier and both found their mark. The slaver unicorn stumbled, fired another round at him. He tried to move, but he felt something hot hit his arm. He gritted his teeth, fired again, and once more the unicorn staggered around before firing another shot. This time he felt it in his side. He went to his knees, unsure of what was going to happen, and he looked at the unicorn who was cocking the lever on the rifle again. His V.A.T.S. was currently offline needing to build up the charge needed to connect with his vision, and so he took a chance and fired.

The shot caught the unicorn in right nostril, going up the nasal cavity until it hit its skull, busted through, and sprayed gray matter out behind it. The slaver dropped, and he stepped forward. He searched him, taking the gun, what ammunition he had, and then found a small flask. It was a kind of clear rubber, with a stopper in the top, and inside was some kind of red liquid. He looked at it. Unsure of what it was, but noticing that there was a small cross on one side. He silently hoped that the cross meant the same thing it had before, unstopped it, and drank.

The effect was instantaneous. He felt the burning wounds from being shot heal, and then he breathed out. He used his Pip Boy to scan it, and inputted that it was first aid remedy. The Pip Boy, being the wonderful machine it was, didn’t offer any argument, but instead it listed that type of flask as holding a first aid remedy.

He breathed out, but it was short lived. He heard the noise of pounding hooves, and he brought the rifle up. His V.A.T.S. had recharged, and he automatically aimed at the next three slavers. One was caught in the side of the head, sending his body tumbling uselessly along the road, the next was caught in the front left foreleg sending him skidding toward Cream Pie who unleashed two bullets from her revolver into his head, and the last one got a shot that grazed her neck.

He recognised her. The same mare that he couldn’t kill before. Her eyes were wide as she looked at him, and he watched as she stepped back.

“You…”

He looked to see Lyra standing there, her horn glowing brightly, “YOU!”

“No… wait…” she didn’t finish before her body was caught in a golden glow. She slammed hard into the ground, and then again, and again. Finally she slammed against a wall and fell down beside it. She was breathing, barely, and Lyra walked toward her.

“I saw what you did to that filly, how you took her wings!”

“Please,” the other mare croaked, “Please… mercy…”

He walked toward them, about to say something when he heard the sickening crack of a neck snapping. He stopped to look at Lyra who glared at the now dead body.

“That’s far more merciful than you deserved,” she spat.

It surprised him, maybe more than it should have, but he hadn’t imagined Lyra being able to do something like that. Granted it wasn’t like he knew her life’s story, and from their talks while they were leaving could be believed then Lyra herself was well over two hundred years old. He was that old, well maybe a little older, but that was because he’d been in cryostasis. He wasn’t sure what he’d been like if he would have been out in the middle of everything. No, he knew what would have happened. He would have undoubtedly became very comfortable with doing whatever it took to get by.

Humans were like that. They adapted, and he knew from experience how quickly they adapted. Oh, there was things about his old life that had bled into his new one. For one he was used to buying really crappy food when he grocery shopped. He had to guess that was why Sarah wanted to do most of the grocery shopping for them. When he went he got what he had been brought up on. Food that would last for an entire month. Food that wouldn’t spoil, food that didn’t have to be cooked right away, and food with enough salt and preservatives in it to cause a corpse to take up to twenty percent longer to rot than one that had ate nothing but natural food.

Maybe that’s why he was so okay with the Twinkies. They lasted practically forever, and they reminded him of Starlight Mobile Home Park right outside of Las Vegas Nevada.

“Hey, you okay?”

He looked at Lyra who was staring up at him.

“Yeah, yeah, fine. I don’t see anymore of them,” he replied.

She nodded and with that the two of them moved toward the gate. It was patchwork at best, made from pieces of old billboards, bits and pieces of casinos, and even a few shopping carts had made their way into the gates. He tried it to find that it was locked, and groaning he knew what he had to do .

It took searching all of the bodies, but finding some ammunition, first aid remedies, a pack of cigarettes, a disposable lighter that was missing a flint, and about fifteen bobby pins told him that it was a big fat empty. He looked at the gate, walked up to it, and looked at the lock that held it together. The lock looked like a simple padlock. So taking a bobby pin, his screwdriver, and his experiences doing this already he began working on the lock. It had looked simply, and it had looked easy, but looks and what it actually was seemed to be two different things.

He’d broken three bobby pins already, but at least he had a feel for it now. He moved the pin around, feeling the tumblers moving, falling into place, and then he felt the click as the screwdriver turned the lock and it popped open. He pulled it off, loosened the chains, and pushed on one of the gates. Despite it being so big, and awkward looking, the gate was surprisingly easy to open.

The hinges seemed to be well greased, and it rolled open with little trouble. Maybe something would be going there way. Once all of them were through he pushed the gate back, he pulled the chain out on their side. For added measure, he clicked the padlock into place on the outside of the gate. It wasn’t like it was really going to stop them from coming through to get it, but at least it made him feel better.

Once that was done he turned around to see a vast area of nothing. He looked at Cream.

“Where’s the trading post?”

She looked up at him, “It’s out here, that way,” she pointed in a seemingly random direction, “and it might take us a little while to get there.”

He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but having to cross desert before finding this place wasn’t it. They walked in the direction she indicated and his Pip Boy began to pick up signals. Not just the radio signals, but signals that were updating on his mapping system. He looked around to see a little boy bopping from place to place, music spilling out from it, and as it moved further on he noticed the signal began to fade. Still, he switched off of the map, then back to it, and he saw the trading post, but there was a name to it.

“New Thunder Head?” he asked.

Cream looked back at him surprised, “Yeah, that’s the trading post. The pony that runs it named it after some warship of the Enclaves that was destroyed.”

He checked the map again, they were heading the right way, and according to the map it was just ahead. The neared where it was supposed to be, and he could see it, sitting in the middle of a ravine. It floated in place, perfectly in place, held up by some unknown force, and his eyes widened as he looked at it. It couldn’t be real. What he was seeing couldn’t be real at all, there was no way it could exist, but the evidence seemed to indicate different.

The base was a black thunderhead cloud, an old rain cloud, on which there was an entire community of buildings built from whatever could be found. It seemed to stretch for at least a mile, and from what he could see it was easily about as wide. He neared the edge of the ravine, looking at it, and then at an old bridge beside it.

“You’re shitting me right?”

Lyra laughed, walked toward the bridge, and began to cross it.

“Wait, how in the hell do we walk on a cloud?!” he shouted.

“The roads aren’t made of clouds. Come on,” Lyra shouted.

Realizing that at this time asking questions would end up causing him more of a mental strain than he wanted he walked toward the bridge, felt the way it popped and creaked as he walked across it, and silently he prayed to God that if he fell just end it quick. He was so concerned about it that he didn’t even realize when he’d crossed it.

He heard the others, and soon the group of them were standing in front of a droid similar to Donald. It was a little different, for one its round head had two pointy metal ears, it wasn’t chrome like Donald, but instead it had been painted a light blue, and it had what looked like a similar screen to his Pip Boy where its face should be.

“W..Welcome to N...New Thunder Head, I’m Bronco, y...you’re welcoming bot! W….” Bronco’s voice shorted out, and a pegasus floated over, slapping it on the back of the head, “And enjoy your stay!”

Bronco floated off, he didn’t ask, and the pegasus took a seat before rolling her eyes, “Welcome to New Thunder Head. I’m Maple Starlight, no one of my parents wasn’t an unicorn,” she took time to give us all a baleful look, “If you’ve got goods to trade, go right down that street. You’re going to run into the founder of New Thunder Head, Mayor Silver Wing.”

“Miss,” he said as she started to leave, “Yes, what?”

“My friends and I would like to know if there is an inn here.”

She rolled her eyes again, acting like he was demanding the world from her, “Across the street from Mayor Silver Wing’s store is the New Thunder Head’s inn. They’ll get you a room, if you got the bottle caps for it.”

With her peace said, she didn’t wait around for further questions ; the mare lifted into the air with a flap of her wings and took off. He looked at our three ponies that had began to walk, but seemed to treat the rest like slave masters. He wasn’t sure if this was the kind of place that would be good for them or not, but given the state of what he’d seen he wasn’t sure if anything short of the Vault would be a good place. And even then he was afraid the isolation would do worse for them.

Walking in the direction Maple Starlight had said they neared a few buildings, but it was Silver Wing’s Junk, Trade, and General Store that caught their attention. They walked over to it, and an older looking Pegasus stallion strolled out. He looked the group over for a moment before he cleared his throat.

“Welcome to Silver Wing’s house of Junk and goods! If you want it, I’ve got it, and I’m the only one that’s got it for a good three days walk, unless you want to try your chance at Las Pegasus. So, come inside, tell me what you need, and we’ll see what we can trade for it.”

The pre-war money won out of that slot machine, which ended up being about nine hundred bits (Cream Pie had counted and recounted) fetched about two hundred bottle caps. Cream told Silver Wing it was robbery, he reminded her of the long way to sell them some place else. I hesitated for a moment, but I pulled a Twinkie from a box and held it out. He looked at it, unsure of what it was that I had.

“Is that a Banana-Rama’s Banana flavored cream cake?”

I shook my head, “No, this is called a Twinkie, and I can promise you that you’ll love it.”

He held his foreleg up, and his Pip Boy, or it looked like one, didn’t click. His eyes widened, he took the package, and after working it for a moment with his teeth and a hoof, he ate the little cream filled cake. Instantly after he looked at me.

“I’ll buy every single one you’ve got, and I’ll… I’ll give you a thousand bottle caps for them.”

“Four Boxes, including the one you took a Twinkie from, for twelve hundred bottle caps,” Cream Pie said.

“That’s Robbery!”

She scratched her chin with her hoof, “Yeah… I don’t think so, and maybe I’m feeling like I’m not charging enough. After all, these are our rations. We might just get some ammunition and be on our way.”

“A thousand for four boxes,”

“A thousand, and ammunition for our weapons.”

He grumbled, “Fine,” he stuck his hoof out to her. She touched it, and she levitated four boxes out of her saddle bags.

He pushed a bag full of caps toward Cream, then looked at the party’s guns, which he was a little surprised by the Vault Dweller’s, but Cream had been right in that he had shells for it. Soon, the string had around three hundred rounds of assorted shells for everything they were equipped with, and shortly after he sent them out of his store. The Vault Dweller looked as he put up a sign for the Twinkies.

‘Just In! Newest thing! Non-irradiated Twinkies! Only twenty bottlecaps per cake!’

“Damn, I bet that he’s going to make a killing.”

Cream turned and looked at the sign and shook her head, “Yeah, but no where near what he paid. They’ll go up, after the first two or three ponies try them. He wants the word out first.”

They walked over to the building across from Silver Wing’s shop, and there was the hotel. The old mare over it was a pegasus that had an artificial leg. The sound of it was similar to the sounds that Donald made when he moved, and that told him that there had to be something that would help Salty and that young Pegasus mare. After a few minutes Cream had managed to get them two rooms to split among them, breakfast in the morning, and she had managed to do so for about sixty bottle caps.

The room wasn’t much. A bed that was a little too narrow for him, a little short, but at the moment it looked like heaven. He moved toward it when he saw Cream heading for a corner. Groaning he walked toward her, “Take the bed.”

She looked up at him in surprise, “What, no, I’m fine here.”

He shook his head, “Take the bed. If it makes you feel better split it with someone. I used to sleep on the floor all of the time when I was young.”

With that he found a place on a piece of the floor that had some filthy carpet, apparently a luxury, and leaned against the wall. Soon he felt a body pressing against him, another on his legs, and before long there was a small pile. It was actually nice, and in the comforting to have a pile going. Although he never slept like this before. His eyes closed, and for a moment he felt safe, secure, and even at home.

Sweet Dreams are Made of These

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The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 4: Sweet Dreams are Made of these

Warmth was good. He sighed as he felt it around him. Pleasant memories of a decent two bedroom apartment, the soft touch of his wife.

"Mmmm, so, do you have a remote there in your hand, or are you happy to see me?"

He looked up, expecting to see Sarah, but instead it was a different shape. She crawled up on the bed, her gravel gray fur looked well cared for, her mane held back by a hair tie.

It was how human she seemed that was strange. Hands, body, soft breasts. She pressed against him, and he let out a soft moan.

"Oh, so that is for me." he felt her lips, wider and softer than he remembered feeling when Sarah Kissed him.

"Cream?"

"Shhhh... it's okay."

He closed his eyes, the warmth changed, and it felt amazing. The sound of a cowbell, of all things, made the image darken until it was gone, and his eyes opened to reveal the room he had slept in with his companions. He groaned as he shifted. It wasn’t that bad sleeping on the floor, but his dream had carried over into the real world, and currently he was dealing with a real world situation.

He felt it, pressing against the Vault-Tech suit he was wearing. He knew that one of them had to feel it. A look toward the bed revealed that no one was there, they all decided to sleep, in a pile, on top of him. He felt something rubbing against him, his eyes moved, trying to see who was directly moving. In truth he had a view of the bed, part of the wall, and a sleeping lavender face with a purple mane that had a pink stripe going down it.

He felt something rub him again, and slowly it seemed to get comfortable, deciding to try to think of anything that wasn’t in the slightest way provocative would be the best course. His mind went to things he could remember, and his mind stopped as he thought of the least sexy thing he’d ever seen in his life.

It’d been on his honeymoon, and he was with Sarah in Cancun Mexico. This was his first trip out of the states, ever, and he’d spent so much time putting it together, getting his passport, and getting ready for it. Only when he and Sarah got there she ate something that made her violently ill. He could still smell the ungodly stench coming from the bathroom, the sound of her hurling into the toilet, and the way he held her hair as she threw up over and over again.

The resort had an on call doctor, which after visiting said she was suffering from food poisoning, gave her some medicine, and said that it would be fine in a few days. That smell, the fact that she couldn’t lie in bed without having a towel under her because it started coming out of both ends, that was the single most unsexy thing he’d ever witnessed.

He didn’t love her any less, in truth he felt it was a good test to see if he would be willing to stick it out. He passed, she got better, three days later, the day they were heading back to the US. Relaxing he could still feel the warmth of the pony pile on him. His hand absently found Twilight’s ear and he scratched behind it. She let out a soft pleasant moan, shifted to move closer to him, and he continued to absently rub and scratch her ear, her scalp, and slowly her eyes opened. She looked around the room, gave him a half smile, yawned, and then got up.

Slowly he watched as one of the ponies they freed, a little regular pony mare, that looked so thin, got up, followed by Salty, and finally, right on his lap, her head resting comfortably on his crotch was Cream Pie. The mare smacked her lips, slowly getting up, and her eyes fluttered. She looked up at him, then where she had laid down, and a blush crossed her face. She didn’t say a word, instead she simply walked to where the others were, deciding to not really talk about it.

He looked at Cream, the way she walked, and he shook his head. Obviously the dream was messing with him more than he’d like to admit that it was. He got up and looked at the group of them gathered together.

“So, breakfast?”

Cream Pie nodded, and she walked toward the door. She opened it and the smell drifting up from downstairs hit them fully. He could smell some kind of pie, biscuits, gravy, and some other foods that just seemed far too good to pass up. He walked with them toward the smell, and finding the other former slaves they’d freed already at the table.

A plate with a scoop of eggs, a biscuit, and a slice of what looked like apple pie was sit down in front of him, and then next to it was a very small bowl of gravy.

He smelled the food, hungry for something other than Twinkies, and the food smelled fantatic. He took a bite of the eggs first, and it dawned on him that he was eating powdered eggs. Not bad, not really, but certainly not what he was expecting. He continued to eat it, and then he took his biscuit, tore it into half, and dipped part of it into the gravy. He brought it up, and took a bite to discover that it was canned gravy. Again, not bad, not really, and he was thankful for something other the Twinkies, but the smell had made him think that it was homemade food.

He didn’t mention any displeasure, but instead he continued to eat, chewing each bite, and letting himself enjoy the tastes. When he’d finished the eggs, biscuit, and gravy he turned his attention to the slice of pie. After what had been presented so far this morning he was expecting more of the same. Pie from a tin, but the first bite told him that this was fresh homemade pie.

He took another bite, chewing it slowly, enjoying the tastes of it, and savoring it like it was the very last bites he’d ever get to eat. When they finished the mare that owned the hotel took their plates, carried them to her kitchen, and then she returned toward them.

“Unless the lot of you want to stay another night that’s it. Be sure to grab your things, and only your things, and take leave.”

They went back up into the rooms, and he gathered what he needed, including the pack that he had found in the casino. They walked down, and out of the hotel and he spotted something over at Silver Wing’s store. He walked toward it, and the Mayor of New Thunder Head, seemed to be happily setting new inventory out.

“Goodmorning! If it isn’t the Stable Dweller! Thanks to those wonderful Twinkie Cakes I did more business yesterday, and today, than I have in over a month! I even managed to trade with a Minotaur!”

He grinned at Silver Wing, “I’m glad to hear it. Is that where this pack came from?”

He looked at it, and the thing was big, certainly able to hold anything he’d want, or need, to carry. Silver Wing moved toward him and took it off of the hook he had it hanging on.

“It is, and unfortunately it’s going to just sit for a very long time. We don’t normally get Minotaurs through new Thunder Head.”

Cream Pie saw what he was doing and moved toward the two of them. She wasn’t the only one, Twilight moved up, and seemed to take time to really pay attention to what they were doing.

“What would you like for the pack?”

Silver Wing smiled brightly, “How does two hundred bottle caps sound?”

He was about to say something before Cream Pie cleared her throat.

“That’s too much, and besides we can carry whatever it is that you need carrying.”

Silver Wing looked annoyed, but he quickly hid that fact, “Oh, I’m sure you could, but being that all of you did give me the best bit of business I’d had in sometime, I’ll let you have it for a mere… hundred and seventy bottle caps.”

She looked at him, sat back on her haunches, and shook her head, “fifty bottle caps.”

It looked like Silver Wing was about to drop horse apples, “Miss, that’s not just robbery, that’s practically taking me behind the store and violating me! I can go to a hundred and twenty bottle caps, but that’s it. If I go any lower than that I stand to lose money, and I can’t go and be losing money on a deal.”

She looked behind Silver Wing at the large shotgun that was on display. It was gigantic, something obviously meant for a Minotaur, and she could see the way it was designed that it was an older shotgun.

“If you throw in the shotgun, and at least fifteen rounds for it, we’ll pay the one hundred seventy bottle caps.”

He looked at them, shook his head, and got the thing down. He sat it down on the counter, which actually groaned a bit when it was placed on there, and then he looked at them and motioned for them to come up to the counter.

“I’ll do the one hundred seventy, and sell you the pack and the shotgun together, along with fifteen rounds, but in return I expect that when you come see me again that you will bring more of those Twinkie Cakes. Deal?”

Cream held her hoof up and he touched it and both of them more or less shook on it.

He gathered a small satchel with shotgun shells, emptied about three out, and handed the rest over to the lone human among the group. Standing there, holding the shells, and the pack, he put the shells into the pack, pulled the pack on, and then lifted the shotgun. The looked heavy, and it didn’t disappoint. It was easily thirty pounds of steel and wood. He felt an engraving and turned it to the side to see a phrase that seemed to be written in English, ‘Widow Maker’.

The barrel was nearly immaculate, right up to the end. That’s where he noticed that it had been filed. Normally that would only happen if someone wanted a shorter barrel, and this large shotgun was easily as long as most of the ones he’d seen. He felt a warm tingling around it, and suddenly he noticed that Cream was in fact floating it up, and then he felt the weight on his back. He turned his head to see that the gun was actually strapped across his pack.

After getting his ten millimeter pistol, his thirty-two caliber pistol he got from the raider, and ammunition for them, he looked back toward Las Pegasus.

“What are you thinking?” Cream asked.

“There’s folks being held in there.”

She stomped her hooves and faced him, “No!”

He looked at her and smiled, “I said before I was going to do something crazy. I can’t let those bastards keep them there. I just can’t.”

With that he began to walk, but what he didn’t expect was to be followed. He looked beside him to see Lyra. Soon, on his other side was Salty, and then he heard Cream Pie grumbling. Others joined him and soon almost everyone was following him.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen when we go in,” he admitted.

Cream Pie floated two pistols ahead of her. Both of them fully loaded, and she huffed, “We’re going to end up saving a whole lot of ponies, and not a one of them are even going to thank us.”

The Trip back wasn’t bad, or hard, not in the slightest, but once they made it back near Las Pegasus he noticed that the gate was still unlocked. Unlocked, and opened….

They moved, silently, toward the gate, and then through it. He had expected to see guards, armed patrols, but there wasn’t anything waiting on them. Nothing except for empty skies and empty streets.

“I dun’t reckon that I like this,” Salty said.

He nodded in agreement. He really didn’t like this either. The lack of anyone moving around was bothering him, but he focused on where they were going, and prayed that it would be uneventful. They made it to the Silver Cloud, went into it, and made their way down into the basement once again. Once there he looked at the ponies that had been so broken, so afraid, and they were practically shaking. Instead of heading straight into the lion’s den he headed toward the Vault. After talking to Donald for a moment the door opened and he leaded several of them inside. Several of the ponies marveled at seeing the inside of a ‘stable’ for the first time.

“Sir, since you’ve been out on sabbatical I have taken it upon myself to keep monitoring the condition of those pods that experienced the energy surge. Everything is happening just as it did when you awoke, so there should be at least three more residents awakening.”

“Thanks Donald. Donald, there are a few of my friends here that are going to be staying in the Vault for a little bit. I want you to treat them like they are registered Vault Dwellers.”

“As an Administrator you have the ability to add them to the registration, sir.”

He looked at the floating droid, “I’m a what now?”

“Sir, since you were the first awaken you are the administrator.”

He stopped and considered that for a moment, “Okay, add them to the list, see to them medically, and feed them.”

“Very well sir,” he turned toward the first little Earth Pony mare that was shaking, “Name?”

“B...Bluebelle.” she said.

“Bluebelle has been registered as a Vault Dweller, welcome, please stand to one side as I finish the registration process.”

One by one Donald went down the line of the ponies that would be staying behind. Afterward He walked with them, showing them what he’d seen, and what he knew, right up to the point where they walked into a large room. Cream Pie and Salty had seen some of the Vault before, but this was different. This was a large room that he’d only seen once, through a happen stance, and he looked at the ponies there.

“Donald told me this is the medical area. All of you are going to be checked on to make sure that there’s nothing wrong with any of you. Afterward if you’re hungry Donald is going to get you some food, and he’ll show you all to some rooms for you to relax in. You are going to be safe in here, and I will be back to get you when it’s clear.”

He didn’t expect much, not anything at all, but what he got was a hug, and then another, and another. All of the ponies they’d saved, all of the slaves, including the ones that were so broken, was hugging him tightly, thanking him, and openly crying. He watched as Cream Pie was brought into it as well, and even though she acted annoyed he believed that she was actually enjoying the gratitude.

“Let’s go free some folks.”

Once again Donald followed them to the door and once more he told Donald to open it for him when he returned. Lyra, Cream Pie, Salty, Twilight, and himself walked out into the darkened area.

“Salty, Cream Pie, lead us to where they were.”

It didn’t take that long to find the place where the basement connected to the sewer system. As he walked he looked around, trying to make sure that there wasn’t too much that would be a surprise, and that’s when he stopped. Cream Pie had slowed first, but when he saw her reaction he stopped completely. The sewer was quiet, for a moment, and then there was a huge squeaking noise. He had his Pip Boy acting as a flashlight, and he looked ahead to see it. He’d been worried about a rat being the size of a large dog.

He couldn’t have been more wrong. The rat wasn’t the size of a dog, no, it was easily the size of a small car. A good look at it showed tumors, growths, and patches of its fur missing. He looked at the thing snarled. It began moving toward them, the snarling angry thing neared and he reached back behind him, grabbing the stock of the massive shotgun. He pulled it out, checked to make sure there was some shells loaded, and then took aim.

His Pip Boy went into V.A.T.S. automatically, and it even showed where the shotgun would do the most damage. He remembered, before the accident, Sarah’s father had taken him skeet shooting. He said that you wanted to brace the stock of the gun against you, and prepare because the lower the gauge number, the more it would kick.

He’d been tricked into shooting an eight gauge shotgun that day, and the shells for this thing dwarfed them. He took aim at it’s head, pulled the trigger, and the first barrel fired. He was expecting several things. For it to kick, naturally, to be moved slightly, to have a sore shoulder, and hopefully for the rat to get wounded and just run off. Instead the shot completely destroyed the rat’s nose, eyes, and most of the top of its skull. The kick wasn’t a kick as much as it was a mule backing him against a wall, and proceeding to buck the living fuck out of his side, and being thrown backward because his stance wasn’t right was the last bit of insult.

He kept the gun from getting hurt, slowly stood, and looked back at it. He decided right then and there that ‘Widowmaker’ would be used only when there wasn’t another choice. He slowly put it back into the holster that was on the pack and Cream Pie was rubbing her ears.

“I think they might know we’re here now,” she groaned as she continued to rub her ears, “At least we know that thing is good at stopping giant rats!”

He nodded, and the group of them moved, slightly more deaf than they had been before, and Cream lead them to a place where she looked confused.

“This isn’t right…”

He looked at her, “what’s wrong?”

She looked around, and slowly moved forward, “The gates are open, they’re never open. It’s like they left or something.”

Twilight began to look around frantically, “Do you feel that?!”

He looked back at her, “Feel what?”

She shuttered, “It’s something big, something and powerful, and I can feel it down here! Something big, and powerful, and angry!”

“Ah, Mine Subjects…”

The voice caused Twilight to look ahead.

“P...Princess Luna?”

There was several ponies that stepped out, a multitude of them, and they seemed to be moving as one group. Over them was a shadow that seemed to be floating off of them, a shadow filled with twinkling stars. The laughter that escaped the mouth of one of the subjects made Twilight take a step back.

“Luna, it has been a long time since we’ve heard that name, at least when we were addressed, but perhaps, perhaps we are her.”

The mare that was talking moved like she was an animatronic toy. Her steps were jerky, awkward, and completely off. He started to do something, but he felt something touch him. He looked to see a golden aura around his hand.

“Don’t, I don’t know what that thing is, but it’s not Princess Luna. She’s… I found her dead in the castle,” Lyra said as she looked at him and then at the ponies moving toward them.

“Princess, it’s me, Twilight, we were…”

Twilight didn’t get to finish her sentence before a shadowy tentacle lashed out and grabbed her by the neck. It lifted her up, holding her, causing her to struggle and try to escape.

“Yes, we remember you. We remember the mare that saw to our defeat! We remember the very mare that used the elements against us! WE REMEMBER!!!!”

Cream Pie didn’t wait, she didn’t hesitate for a moment, but instead she pointed her gun at the tentacle and fired. He watched, expecting it to be like smoke, to simply pass through, but instead it hit and the effect was something he didn’t expect. The tentacle dropped Twilight, who fell like a sack of potatoes, and the leading mare’s eyes changed. They began a brilliant blue, and she shook before she looked around and screamed in fright before her eyes went completely white again.

“FOOL!” she shouted, “WE ARE IMMORTAL!”

“Ya ain’t Princess Luna!” Salty shouted.

He looked over at the Pegasus that was missing a wing. He moved forward, his face looking hard, “Princess Luna was a good pony, I heard tales about her kindness, and ya ain’t her!”

The lead mare laughed, “Kindness? KINDNESS?! Where was the kindness afforded to us when we protected Canterlot?! Where was the kindness we deserved for saving our subjects?!”

Suddenly a massive bit of power erupted from behind him. It rocked forward and hit the twinkling shadow. It began pulling it, twisting against it, and he looked to see Twilight. She stood there, but there was tears spilling down her cheeks. She closed her eyes, “I’m so sorry.”

The shadow pulled away from the ponies there, and several of them simply fell. It was as if the shadow had been the only thing keeping them going. The shadow itself was in the form of a pony, one like Twilight. It was smokey, made of a shadow, with a strange blackened blot on its rump and a crescent moon there on it as well, but when it opened its mouth he could tell it wasn’t an it, no it really was a she.

“Twilight Sparkle, thou were once a friend, release us, allow us to go about what must be done! Ponies must once again learn harmony, and we can do that! We can turn them to the unifying harmony of night!”

He watched as the form changed, a helmet formed on her head, her eyes became slitted, and she looked vicious and angry.

“Release us, as thine Princess we demand it!”

Twilight’s eyes were shut, tears were falling, but she didn’t release her hold, and instead the angry being inside of the bubble Twilight had formed narrowed her now slitted eyes, “Very well, thou hast chosen.”

She flexed her power and caused the bubble to pop, and the force threw all of them back. She hovered there, for a moment before laughing, “We will be seeing each other again.”

He watched as she separated into smoke and disappeared back into the shadows of the area they were in.

“Okay, what in the fuck was that?!”

Twilight got up, and he heard her sob. He walked toward her, kneeling down a little, and he put an arm around her. What he was rewarded with was a hug from the Pegacorn, as he called her, that almost felt it was going to squeeze his chest hard enough to cause his head to pop off like a tube of toothpaste popping its cap off when being squeezed too hard.

“N...Nightmare Moon…”

He looked lost and looked toward Lyra who hung her head.

She looked up at him, “There’s a lot we’ve got to talk about, but since we’re not going to be getting into a massive firefight, lets see what we can do for these ponies.”

Leaving New Las Pegasus

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The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 5: Leaving New Las Pegasus

After the weird Pegacorn made of what looked like smoke disappeared it left the group with the question of what to do, and who was exactly who. It didn’t take long to learn that most of the ponies that had fallen, and were pretty much dead at this point, seemed to be the slavers of this area. Cinnamon Bun, or Cin for short, was among the ponies that seemed the most understanding of what was going on, or at least she was understanding to a point.

“Cinnamon!”

The two toned red and white maned, and tailed, mare looked toward the excited unicorn that was shouting at her. She grinned brightly at her, and hugged her granite colored friend.

“Cream! You got out! What are you doing back here?”

Cream shuffled her hoof for a moment before she pointed toward the lone human in the middle of all of this, “He wanted to come down and free everypony.”

Cinnamon Bun walked toward him, she tilted her head toward one side, looked at him, and then snorted, “Cream, your friend looks like a mutated Minotaur.”

“I can hear you, and I’m a human,” he replied.

She shook her head, “So, you’re one of those things that Lyra’s been going on about.”

“Hey! I can hear you too!”

Then the cream white coated mare with the two toned mane, and tail, walked around him, seemingly measuring him up for a moment before finally giving him a hug. She then lowered back down and took a seat on her haunches.

“What happened down here?”

Cinnamon shook her head, “I don’t exactly know. I mean we were trapped, the slavers were talking about which of us they were going to throw to the rat, and then somepony prayed to Luna. Right afterward everything got dark, some of the slavers screamed and then we woke up here with you.”

Cream seemed to look at her for a moment and shook her head, “It can’t have been that easy.”

Cinnamon studied her friend who sat there trying to make sense of it, “I’ve known fillies, colts, and even other beings that have spent countless days and nights praying to Celestia and Luna, only for nothing to happen. I can’t believe that on this one off chance she just happened to appear, and besides, that didn’t seem like her. It was nothing like the Luna I remember reading about.”

Twilight listened to them, but her eyes were looking in the darkness. She was judging, seeing the dark for what it was. A place where a shadow could hide, heal, and regain strength. Some of her memories were still muddy, things didn’t always exactly match up, but she remembered facing Nightmare Moon. She remembered the Elements of Harmony destroying the Nightmare and freeing Luna, so why would Nightmare moon still be alive.

“You look a little preoccupied,” a voice said.

She turned to see the lone human among them. A quick nod let her answer before she looked back at the dark, “Cream Pie is right. It doesn’t make sense.”

She heard the ground shift, and then felt his warmth next to her own. She didn’t turn away the fact that he was trying to comfort her, but instead she leaned into it, letting him rub her just under her wing joint.

“Since I’ve woken up the only thing that makes sense is that nothing makes sense. I’m in a world of talking ponies, something I’m still trying to write off as mutations gone bad, an impossible dream, or maybe I’ve died and this is the afterlife. I’m not sure which one fits, but I’ve been trying to convince myself that it has to be one of them. Unfortunately, I’m not have a very good time of doing so,” he said as she pressed against him, “All I can do for the moment is just roll with the punches.”

She looked toward him, studying his face as he looked at the endless black of the darkness before them, “So, just go with it?”

He shrugged before looking at her, “More or less. That’s all anyone can really do. Just roll with it.”

He slowly got to his feet, which in turn caused her to get to her hooves. What he said did make sense. It made far more sense than just sitting here, waiting, hoping, praying that things would be different. The two of them moved toward the others.

“So, does anypony know where we should take these ponies?”

He looked at Lyra who had decided to ask the question that obviously needed to be asked, but no one was really sure how to answer. Instead he looked around at the gathered group, the now out of commission slavers, and their weapons.

“I have an idea that I think might work, if all of you are okay with it,” he began, “It seems to me that you’ve got a potentially functioning community topside. I’m not sure what these slavers were having you do, but obviously you don’t have to do it anymore. Instead, why don’t you begin converting some of the buildings, working with what there is, and seeing if you can’t make a town right here. New Thunderhead is less than a day outside of here, and you could potentially start up a trade agreement with them.”

Cinnamon Bun walked toward him, and then she nodded before she turned around toward the others, “The hairless Minotaur is right. We’ve got the place to set up, weapons to defend ourselves, and we can make a go of it here.”

“But what about the stuff they did to us?!” a voice cried out.

“Yeah!” several others agreed.

Cinnamon shook her head, “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, or fun, but I am saying that we have a real chance here to do something most ponies never get the chance to do. We have a chance to set up a community, becoming a trading station, and maybe even make more of a life than just hoping that the next slaver won’t be more sadistic than the last! If we band together, we work together, we can make this work.”

Slowly several of them nodded, and with that decision made he lead them up out of the sewers, to the basement of the Silver Cloud, and then out into the dimly lit streets of Las Pegasus. Cinnamon Bun looked it over, and then looked at the Silver Cloud behind them.

“Okay, I say we start here. We know that this casino is mostly safe, so we work from here out. But for tonight, I want everypony to relax, take time off, and just get some rest.”

Several seemed to agree as they moved toward the doors and back into the casino itself. After a few moments she looked at the small group still standing out there with her.

“Thanks for giving us a home. I don’t know how well we’re going to do with it, but thank you,” she said.

He nodded, but it was Cream Pie that moved forward and hugged her again.

“Cinnamon, you’ve got this, right?”

The off white mare with the two toned red and white mane nodded, “Yeah, I’m going to be fine. I’m free tonight, with any luck at all for the rest of my life, and I owe it to you and your friends. Cream, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but you and your friends are welcomed back here anytime. Know that Las Pegasus’ gates are always opened to you.”

Hearing them talk the Vault Dweller thought of those ponies still in the Vault itself. He explained to Cream what he planned on doing, headed down, and had Donald unlock the Vault. When he went inside he was greeted with seeing the freed ponies from earlier, sitting together, eating some vegetables that appeared to have been frozen, and recently thawed for them, and animatedly talking among themselves. When they noticed him, he was once again the subject of various hugs, delighted thank yous, and informed that he was a good pony, or Minotaur, or whatever it was that he was.

Once they had that out of their system he began to explain to them about the situation above them, that the others were freed, the slavers wouldn’t be bothering them anymore, and if they chose they could head up top. He’d be back, later, but it may be a few months. Without hesitation all of them elected to stay in the Vault.

He understood their reasoning for staying inside of the Vault. There was safety, protection, and no one would ever be to get into the Vault without him there to verify to Donald to open the Vault door.

“Okay, I’m going to be gone for a while, not an exceptionally long time, but at least a month or two. I want to see this Crystal Empire, find out if there is more of my kind there, or someway to get to them, and then I’ll come back. If you all don’t mind I’d like to ask you to help Donald, monitor the pods, and when the others start waking up just take time talking to them.”

They nodded, and then Bluebelle hugged him again. He scratched behind her ear, walked toward the Vault door, and told Donald the same instructions. Donald informed him that he understood, and with that he left the safety of the Vault, headed back up to the surface, and rejoined his party. Cinnamon Bun, and three others, followed them to the gates, and once there, Cinnamon stopped Cream Pie.

“You don’t have to go you know. We’re going to make this a place worth living in, and you’d have a home here. You can stay, with me, and well with the others. That’s the same for all of you. You’re welcome to stay here.”

He looked out at the desert waiting for them. The wasteland awaited, and he had a feeling that this was a wasteland even before it became the wastelands that it was today.

“I’ve got to get answers, and what little I’ve heard says that I might find them in the Crystal Empire.”

Cinnamon Bun then looked at Cream who shook her head, “Salty… well all of them would be lost without me. Besides, I want to visit the Rock Farm, check on Maud, and there’s just still too much to do.”

Cinnamon nodded, hugged them in a large group hug, and then as soon as they stepped through the gates closed, and locked. Once more they were out, and this time it was closer to night. He knew which way New Thunderhead was. They’d been there already, and it wasn’t so far that they couldn’t make it. But heading back to New Thunderhead wasn’t really going to get them any closer to where he felt he needed to go.

“What’s the fastest way to the Crystal Empire?”

He felt someone brush against him and he looked to see Twilight, “The Friendship Express went there, if we can find the tracks we could follow them.”

It seemed as good of an answer as he could come up with, so he nodded, and their small group began walking out into the desert. His Pip Boy was showing the current area, nothing overly sticking out, and it seemed to continue to show more of the same, over and over again until they neared something that caused his Pip Boy to react with a name and small emblem appearing, much like what happened with New Thunderhead and Las Pegasus.

“Friendship Express, Railway Station number fifteen?” he said.

Looking ahead there was an old building out in the distance. The back of it looked half covered with sand, old shutters were closed, and beside it an old soda machine was softly running, sounding like it was on its last legs. They walked toward it, he carefully listening for the sounds of weapons being loaded and aimed toward them, but instead it was just night, lots and lots of night that was surrounding them.

He looked at the building for a moment, seeing no movement, they walked around the side of it, toward the front, and there they found a wall. A wall made from an old shipping container, and another, and another, and another that was stacked three high, and who knew how many around. It seemed like the wall went around the building, toward the front, where when he walked toward the front of it he heard the sounds of weapons like he was expecting.

“Welcome to Railway Town, I’m acting mayor, sheriff, and judge Bronze Star. You’ve got about six seconds to explain who you are, what you want, and if you’ve got intentions that will lead to the injury or death, of the folks here with me. If you give answers I don’t like… Well, Mr. shotgun is going to give answers in response to me. We understand one another?”

“Sir, we’re not here to make trouble. It’s dark, I’m sure you know that the wastelands are crawling with things that can, and will, kill a pony faster than a bullet, and we’d like nothing more than to just come inside of your town, do a little trading, and of course get a room for the night. Nothing more than that.”

He looked at Cream who seemed to be more than willing to do a good deal of their talking for them.

After a moment there was a sound of gears catching, and soon it began to slowly move. The it being the gate seemingly made from simple metal panels off of the sides of some old shipping crates. When it opened what stood there was a small collection of ponies, and to his surprise an Actual Minotaur. She was easily eight foot tall, if her bust and hips were anything to go by she had an hourglass figure, but her arms had muscles that looked like they belonged to foundry worker. She smelled of old leather, hot iron, hot glass, and burned copper. He watched as she moved toward them, her eyes drifting toward each and every one of them, at least once over, before stopping at him again.

“You’re that thing DJPon3 talked about aren’t you?”

He looked at her a little surprised, “DJPon what now?”

She looked toward him, raising her arm, and showing him a similar Pip Boy as his own, and suddenly a radio station began to come in tuned.

“Alright all of your wasteland and settlement dwellers, there’s news that a new Stable Dweller is out there, and from the sounds of it he’s making friends all over. Las Pegasus is no longer a slaver town, good going, and it sounds like New Thunderhead has some new tasty treats thanks to this wasteland adventurer! It’s a little early to decide, to really know, but maybe, just maybe this new Stable Dweller will be the same kind of breath of fresh air that our favorite Light Bringer was, and still is. For now, this is DJPon3, bringing you the truth, and of course the best music in the Wastes, here’s a little something from a long time ago, Razzle Dazzle by Countess Coloratura.”

“Woah, wait, wait just a Goddamned minute, how in the royal, unholy, god of pornography fuck does this person, sorry pony, even know who in the hell I am?!”

The Minotaur looked at the others with him, “He’s special isn’t he?”

Cream sighed and pointed off in what seemed like a random direction, “You can’t see it now, but about midday there’s a giant white tower over there,” she looked to see his disbelieving face, “Trust me it’s there, there’s hundreds of them, and they allow anypony that has access to them to see practically anything. The single pegasus, or pony, or something project. I know enough about the Ministry that built it to know it was their only contribution to the war effort. It’s what let the sky open up finally, and it lets ponies see around all of Equestria.”

“So… this person has been watching us?”

Cream nodded, “Most likely, yes, I’d say so.”

“It’s most likely connected to any prewar technology as well,” Lyra said from beside him.

He shook his head. It sounded almost like the project ‘Light Net’ that was being developed between the Chinese and the US Governments. A system that would provide free internet to anyone that wanted it, but several people had been shouting out that it would also allow the two governments to spy on any individual, or company, they wanted to without even having to get a warrant to do so. If that was similar, then it made sense that this thing was connected all over. It would practically be a super hotspot for any device that needed to be connected to a wireless signal.

If that was the case then it could be another instance of how this was his world, his home, but it didn’t explain the Minotaur, the talking ponies, or the use of what obviously appeared to magic, or living smoke that looked like pegacorns. He shook his head. The more he thought about it the more likely it was that his home, his world, even if it was this one, was long gone. For a moment it made him question the quest he was currently on.

There wasn’t any guarantee that he’d find anything connecting humanity to this world, and even if he did, he wasn’t sure it’d be the humanity he knew. He had hopes, real hopes that he’d find someway into a human settlement, a place that would explain all of the insanity he’d face so far, but instead his mind was left with the realization that what he was chasing might be nothing more than a pipe dream.

If that was the case then it meant that the only other humans around would be the ones back in the Vault under the Silver Cloud, and most of them would be in cryogenic sleep for he didn’t know how long. He moved, following his companions, hearing, but not really listening to the Minotaur cow, or the ponies, leading them toward one of the station buildings. They stepped into it, and he felt himself feeling colder, and more empty as he stood there.

He wasn’t alone, not really, his companions were here, but in so many other ways he was really separated in ways he couldn’t even begin to think about without breaking down further from where he already was. It’s not like he was an unlearned man. He’d been to college, studied, but Thoreau didn’t go through this with his Walden experience. There was still people around him. He could see them in the distance, his family and friends cooked and cleaned for him. For all of his writing, all of his experiences, Thoreau hadn’t truly been disconnected from humanity in the way he was right now.

He felt a nudge, then something warm against his side. Slowly the warm filling was surrounding him, almost like a protective barrier from his own feelings. He followed the warmth, the motion, the herd he’d become part of up to a room where they were let into it. When he took a seat the warmth didn’t leave him, and instead it began to move in closer.

“It’s okay,” a soothing voice said.

He looked ahead, the weight of it all threatening to crush down on him, yet the warmth wouldn’t let it in. The warmth kept it back, fighting to keep him from slipping into the darkness of the abyss that had formed when he began to realize how alone he was. It fought to keep him here, to keep his mind in tact. Slowly his eyes drifted down slightly and he saw every one of his pony companions hugging against him. Lyra, Salty, Cream, and Twilight was hugging him letting him know that they were there.

“You’re going to be okay.”

He leaned back the weight of it all finally settled, his mind accepting, fighting, refusing, and slowly relaxing through it all. His eyes closed, and sweet sleep claimed him. After he was settled, his body relaxed, Cream laid her head on his chest.

Salty had seen Pegasus mares do that for their foals. Protectively keeping them safe, daring the terrors of the night to come and attack, and somehow he felt that it fit Cream.

“Bound to happen,” Lyra said as she yawned.

“What ya mean?” Salty asked.

She laughed mirthlessly and looked at the their sleeping companion, “He’s a lone human in the middle of a society that doesn’t even know how to respond to him. I know for the last couple of days we’ve been running on adrenaline and purpose,” she touched his leg, “He hasn’t had time to think about what it means to be here, as himself, as a human, in a world where there are no other others of his kind.”

Twilight looked at him, moving slightly so his head could rest better on her stomach. Her memories slowly opened to her, and she thought of Spike. Spike her number one assistant… her… her son. He’d been such a small drake when he was hatched, and he was so small for so long. It was a little different for Spike, in several ways, but at the same time he knew that he was very much alone in a world full of ponies. He had friends, she remembered that, and she remembered that he had even briefly dated, but in the end he was still an outsider looking in on a society that just didn’t quite know how to act or respond to him.

It might be a little different, in truth it was different, but it wasn’t so completely separated that she couldn’t seen the similarities. Their new friend obviously felt what Spike must have felt, and if he did then it meant she needed to try and help him realize that he had friends. She couldn’t nuzzle him, give him that comfort, but she found that part of her instincts was telling her to use her wing to help cover him.

She spread her wing down, letting it cover part of his chest, and part of Cream Pie, as they lay there. Feeling that she was indeed doing some good Twilight felt sleep moving in, and she welcomed it. Her eyes closed, and she relaxed with him.

Watching it all, trying to figure out what to do, and feeling that the best he could do was to just press against his new friend, helping to keep the bad feelings out, and just being there was what Salty continued to do. He watched as Lyra yawned, but kept a soft light going, he also watched as a small harp appeared out of thin air. Gentle melodies that reminded him of his own mother singing began to play, and Lyra hummed as she leaned against Cream Pie and their human friend.

She looked at Salty, giving him a soft smile, and then she turned her attention back to the music that was playing. Her gift to their new friend was a peaceful night, a lullaby, and the hope that the next day would be a bit easier to accept.

It might have been unintentional, but the group of new and old friends had come together in a way that once saved Equestria from a biting cold brought on by supernatural forces. Once again the warmth of the hearts, the feeling of friendship battled a threatening darkness, one that was located in the wide and infinite space of a mortal mind, but one that was no less dangerous than the creatures of the old world that threatened to freeze everything. That night the feeling of friendship and safety spread through the small settlement of Railway Town, showering its inhabitants in a feeling most hadn’t ever truly experienced.

No Planes, Maybe a Train, and No Automobiles

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The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 6: No Planes, Maybe a Train, and No Automobiles

Morning light broke through the window of the room shared by the group of friends. When the light began to creep across the floor, touching everything and letting the room find comfort in its warmth, it touched an old solar panel that had been set up for power in the small room. After a moment the sound of static began to fill the small room with noise, and then that static changed to the sound of trumpets playing.

The effect was instantaneous, and nearly everyone in the room had a massive coronary when the sound hit them. Eyes opened, heads and ears became alert, and it wasn’t until someone finally noticed the speaker above the bed that was hooked to an old recorder on a table that things began to quiet. Most of the makeshift herd began to stretch around, all but the lone human in the group. The night had been blissfully peaceful, but now that the waking world had decided to greet him he was lost in thought.

He was honestly directionless. His directive, his goal, had been reaching this Crystal Empire, seeing if there was humans there, but everything around him simply pointed that even if his belief that this was still Earth was right… It wasn’t his world. Somehow he didn’t believe it was his Earth. Part of him wondered if anyone knew what this felt like. It wasn’t like it had been. He didn’t feel so hopeless, so incredibly lost, but he felt almost like an outsider looking in. There had been so many that had been like that, and in truth back before the car wreck he even felt that way more than once.

He didn’t really fit in with most of his family after he got a good education, and he didn’t fit in with the normal groups of folks that went to the university. Sarah was the only one to see past where he had come from.

“Hey, you okay?”

He looked toward the voice and saw Cream staring at him, “Yeah, I think so.”

She breathed out, “Good, look I’m not… Oh by Holder Cobblestone, I’m not good at this kind of thing, but please don’t get like that again, okay?”

He nodded, “I’ll try.”

The group walked down, and to their surprise ponies seemed friendlier. They weren’t arguing, there wasn’t a feeling of paranoia or dread, but instead it almost seemed like a friendly place. Well a friendly place that happened to be located inside of the wasteland. The group looked around the stacked containers, and then at the old station itself. As they moved toward it a faint smell caught their attention.

It smelled like Apple pie. Memories of the fantastic Apple pie that had been in New Thunderhead seemed to move through the collective minds of the strange herd. As they reached the station the smell was thick in the air, and they could see several pies already lined up. There, beside them, was an orange pony with a green mane and tail. The Pegasus mare had two whole apples, and a third apple that had been sliced open as a cutie mark. She looked at the group with a pair of bright green eyes.

“Howdy, Y’all interested in some Apple Pie?” she smiled, “Been selling like apple fritters on a cold day.”

Cream walked toward her, “Sure, how much?”

There was a gleam in her eye that told the story of a skilled business mare, “Oh, twenty-five bottle caps fer a whole pie, five caps per slice.”

Cream snorted, “Twenty-five bottle caps?! What, did Celestia just magically appear and push these out of her holy twat?!”

The mare frowned, “Listen up. Ya ain’t gotta eat if’n ya dun want ta, but ya ain’t gonna say a cross word one ‘bout any Apple family Apple Pies, ya got it missy?!”

“We’ll take two, please?”

She looked at the large thing standing there, “Ya that thing that saved those ponies in Las Pegasus?”

“Wait, Las Pegasus or New Pegasus?” a younger mare asked as she trotted closer.

The older pony looked at the Unicorn teenage filly and rolled her eyes, “They’re the same place Gala, jest, Las Pegasus is the part that didn’t have all of that crazy in it. Jest had those slavers with that wall around it.”

“Wait, what do you mean it’s the same place? I thought that it was just Las Pegasus?”

The Pegasus grinned, “Funny fella,” she said before she looked at him, “Oh lawd, Celestia have my tailhole with a sandpaper cooler… Ya dun’t know huh?”

She sighed, “Ain’t sure when it happened, but some time after the war there was some fightin’ happening, and the two sides fightin’ figured that building a wall to separate Las Pegasus into two towns would work. So, New Pegasus is right behind it. If’n ya was headin’ from this way ya’d never see it. Naw, ya’d either have ta be headin’ from Ironworks ta see New Pegasus.”

Deciding that arguing how someone missing a city would be pointless he nodded and looked at her, “Okay.”

“Anyway, Nopony really tries crossing the wall, well mostly. Ah heard somepony say that there’s some weird things in New Pegasus. Crazy sort of things, and Ah guess that the wall seems ta keep part of it away in its own part. Best Ah can figure anyway,” she said as she got a couple of pies, “So, anyway, two pies, that’ll be fifty bottlecaps.”

Cream looked at him, “We could stand to get something different.”

He shook his head, “After everything, I think that Apple pie sounds good.”

Cream sighed, her horn lit up, and she floated the right number of caps over. The other mare smiled.

“Thanks! Name’s Apple Dumplin, plum nice ta meet ya,” she said as she stretched out her hoof.

He reached out and grabbed it, giving it a little shake. She seemed a little offset about it, but didn’t complain. After taking the pies the herd moved toward a place to sit, and soon the pie was divided up by the three magic users. With absolutely no hesitation Salty was digging in like he hadn’t eaten in ages. Cream rolled her eyes. Twilight floated bites up to her mouth, slowly savoring the taste, each one unlocking more memories of her friends, of Applejack, and how uncannily that mare resembled her.

Lyra smiled as she watched the others eat. The pie did smell marvelous, but she didn’t eat. It didn’t stop her from enjoying watching the others obviously enjoying their meals. It also didn’t stop her from noticing how close Cream Pie was sitting to their human friend. She wouldn’t say a word about it. Equestria was never a that denied relationships between sapient species. She’d seen about every kind of coupling on her trips across Equestria. There had even been a Changeling and an Earth Pony that had shacked up together and set up something of a trading post on the old 52.

“Not to be somepony to bring anything up, but are we still heading toward the Crystal Empire?”

Eyes fell on Lyra, and then on the lone human.

He sighed, “I’m not sure what we’re going to find if we go there. I get the feeling that this isn’t home, and most likely the only thing that even resembles home is the Vault back in Las Pegasus.”

Lyra looked at him, touched his hand with her hoof, and smiled, “Look, we don’t have to, but I can tell you that what you’re wondering about… Well, the rumors exist for a reason. I haven’t got to go through it, never been there when it was open, but I’ve seen the mirror. It’s just inside the ruins of the Crystal Palace.”

Several ears perked up, “You’ve been to the Crystal Empire?!”

She looked at the owner of the voice, a very irate unicorn mare that was sitting next to the human in the group.

She sighed, “Yes I’ve been there, it’s mostly quiet…”

“Mostly Quiet?”

She groaned, “Bon Bon would so tell me to shut up right now. ‘Lyra, stop talking eat a caramel, get it good and chewy, and stop talking.’,” she laid her head on her hooves, “There’s a few ghouls there, mostly the good sort, a few Alicorns, and a very depressed Princess.”

“Wait… A Princess… Cadence?!”

The group looked at Twilight who looked excited. She had stopped eating, and instead she looked like she was practically dancing in place, “Princess Cadence is alive?!”

Lyra tried to smile, “Yes… But I..”

“YES!!!! YES, YES, YES!” Twilight said as she jumped around like an excited filly, “We’ve got to go! Please?!”

Cream huffed, knowing that they would be going, but it was a good long trip on hoof. She looked around, and she spotted something that caught her eye. It was sitting there, on the track, rusted, more of a husk than anything else, but maybe it could work. It would certainly be easier going by Rail than going on the ground. Now, they just had to convince the ponies of this town the good idea of repairing it, and putting it back to use.

The Party!

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The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 7: The Party!

Brass Cup, or Brassie to her friends, looked at the old engine leftover from before the war. That pony Cream Pie had explained to several of them how having a working train engine would benefit the entire town. They could set up shipping lanes, cover large distances, even get new trade that they wouldn’t have before. Of course she knew all of that. The Minotaur walked around it a few times before she crawled up into the engineer’s spot and looked at the train itself.

Her father had taught her how to work with engines like this. He’d been one of the original designers of the Iron Vulture, a giant airship that, as far as she knew, was still somewhere in the sky acting as a trading post for anypony that could reach it. Of course that airship worked off of mana batteries, and that meant finding Unicorns that could charge those batteries. That hadn’t been too hard. Of course the reason she wasn’t on there was because the gryphon that helped him had turned on him.

She had barely escaped, but she remembered how her father had stayed and fought to give her the time and chance to get away. She wasn’t sure where the Iron Vulture was, but she did want to see Geist pay for what he did. She desperately wanted to see that smug bastard taken down a notch or two. Of course it would take someone crazy, lucky, and strong to do it. In truth she had hoped that the first Stable Dweller would have done it for her. But it seemed that she just missed the Vulture’s location. But this Stable Dweller that was here, well, there was certainly the chance that he could do it.

She climbed out of the train engine and looked at the Stable Dweller’s herd standing near Bronze Star. The Mayor of Railway Town looked at her.

“So Brassie, how does it look?”

She wiped her soot covered hands on her leather apron, looked at him, and gave a half smile, “Well it’s not a total loss. I could get it going. Wouldn’t take more than a day or so really, but here’s the situation. The boiler has a crack in it the size of a whorse’s gash. That’s going to take getting some good brass or copper to fix. We ain’t got much of either here.”

The herd looked at each other, “Is there someplace where there is some that can be… acquired?”

She nodded, “Sure is.”

Bronze Star looked at her and shook his head, “Brassie, no.”

She groaned, “Bronze Star, we need that train running as badly as they do. On top of that, I’d sleep a lot better if that damned thing was shut down.”

After a moment the Vault Dweller groaned and stepped forward, “What thing, and where?”

Bronze Star looked at him, “Look, I’m not going to tell you to go, but there’s a building about half a day’s travel to the east. It’s not on any map, but that doesn’t matter. No pony goes near it because they just disappear. No pony knows what it is, or what it does, but we try to stay clear of it. There’s usually some music that plays, but I don’t know what kind because I’m not dumb enough to go out there to it,” he sighed, “But Brassie is right. We could use the train going, and most likely it’s going to have all the copper we need to fix it. If you can get the copper, and shut whatever that place is down, we’ll fix the train and we’ll take you as close to the Crystal Empire as we can. Deal?”

Standing there the mish mashed herd seemed to consider things, but the Vault Dweller, he knew he was going to do it. Twilight had been far too excited, and this was too good of an opertunity to get there faster than trying to do it on foot. He breathed out, looked at Bronze Star and nodded, “I’ll do it.”

Cream looked at him, her eyes wide, “Didn’t you hear what he said?! No pony comes back from there!”

He smiled at her, “I’m not a pony.”

The face hoof that happened was truly epic. Cream balefully glared at him, “I know that, idiot, but it stands to reason that you’re more like us than not! We don’t know what’s there, or what happens in that place!”

He nodded, “I know, but honestly, I don’t think that I could refuse going anyway. We need to get the Crystal Empire, it would help these folks, and maybe that would help things all over. At least we can hope that, right?”

“By Luna’s sweet teats you’re going to do it anyway aren’t you?”

He smiled. She rolled her eyes, “Of course. I didn’t think that anypony could get out of Las Pegasus and you proved me wrong there. I’m going with you, but if I die I’m going to haunt you for all of eternity!”

He touched her head, right behind her ear, causing her to bristle for a moment, only a moment, before she leaned into it, “Idiot…”

“I know,” he looked at everyone else, “No one else has to go with me.”

Lyra grinned, “Oh, I’ve got to go. This is something I haven’t seen yet.”

Salty walked toward him, “I’m gonna go. Yer my friend, and ya dun’t leave friends.”

Twilight neared him, leaning against him, “This is as much for me as anypony else, and besides, maybe I’ll remember something about it when we get closer.”

Brass Cup looked at them, and then at Bronze Star. She couldn’t go, Railway Town needed her, and her ability to fix pretty much anything, right here, but it didn’t mean that she couldn’t help them. Besides, if he was able to get the copper for them it would help the town, and if she helped him then it would indebt him to her. That would certainly come in handy when the time to pay Geist back for what he did to her father and herself.

“Before you leave, come over to my shop, it’s the lemon yellow, and rust, colored one right by the station. I think there’s something there that I might have that will help you, most likely anyway.”

She turned and left, not paying to attention if they were following her or not. In truth she figured they were trying to milk Bronze Star for more information about that building. Which unfortunately wouldn’t be that much more than he had given already. She stepped into the container that was her shop, and she looked at the very thing she was going to give this new Stable Dweller. She had worked with her father to make it, and she remembered how proud he had been when she finished.

Looking at it a Pony, Gryphon, or even another Minotaur would mistake it for a simple bracelet. But that wasn’t what it was at all. She touched the seemingly solid gold bracelet, inside of it was thousands of circuits all connected to mini mana capacitors that lined up and down it. Those circuits and capacitors worked with nearly microscopic arcane-machines that would enter into the bloodstream of the wearer. She had never tested it, but she was certain that it would give the wearer the strength of an Earth Pony for a short period of time.

It fed off of the magic of the wearer, or in the very rare cases the user had no magic it would work with the magic around them. She looked at it, and then she looked at her own Pipbuck. Something she wore most of the time. The Enhancer, as she called it, was picked up by her Pipbuck, so it stood to reason that his should also pick it up. She heard the door open and she turned around to see the herd stepping into the shop. She sat the bracelet on the counter.

“This is what I wanted to give you.”

Cream walked toward the counter and stood on her hind legs, “What is it?”

Brass Cup grinned, “Well, it should give the wearer the same strength as an Earth Pony. It will only work for a short period of time before it has to recharge, but I believe it could be of use to you,” she said as she looked at the new Stable Dweller, “However, I’m certain that you’ve learned nothing in the Wasteland is ever truly free.”

He nodded, “What do you want for it?”

She smiled, “Data. It’s untested, so naturally I would like to know how well it works. Also, I may call upon you for a favor one day. If you agree to those two things, I will happily let you have the Enhancer.”

He took a moment to look at it, and then he nodded. She handed it to him, and he looked at it as he held it in his hand, “How do I use it?”

She pointed to his arm with the Pipboy on it, “Put it on your wrist next to your Pipbuck. It should be able to pick up the device. I’m fairly certain that it will integrate it into its own functions as well. It should autosize to fit your wrist.”

He slipped it on, and like she said the moment it slid onto his wrist it began to light up. Several small pin holes glowed a soft green for a moment as it shrunk down and became snug on his wrist. He felt tiny needles, like from the Pipboy, and soon the his Pipboy beeped at him. He looked at the screen as it showed the device.

‘Cup and Cup enterprizes Enhancer. Device able to enhance strength of individual through use of nanotechnology. Uses environmental energy to support functions. Warning, this is not a Vault-Tech sanctioned device. Use of this device does not fall under Vault-Tech’s warranty.’

“Thanks,” he said as he looked up at her.

She nodded, and she watched them leave. She knew there was every chance in the world she would never see them, or the Enhancer again, but if they made it back then she’d have the data needed to prove that her device worked, something she was certain would go over well for places where Earth Ponies were scarce. Of course if he did make it back she already knew the favor she was going to ask. She hoped that he would make it back, because that meant that Geist’s days were numbered.

As she walked with their growing herd Cream looked back at Railway Town. The place wasn’t bad in the slightest. In fact as far as towns in the waste land went it was fairly peaceful. Sure, it seemed like there might have been a little cramped for some of the ponies there, but that was something that happened with any town that was actually somewhat safe. She turned toward the dusty landscape of the wasteland. She wouldn’t have done something like this before she met this strange human. But there was something about him. How his actions seemed to be something of a blend of how they were now, and how they had been so long ago.

It made her feel more connected to be around him. And of course that wasn’t the only part of it. He made her feel different. Almost like she wanted to protect him. Luna’s sweet teats she didn’t want to think too much about it. She spent so much time trying not to get too close to anypony that wasn’t family. Salty and Cinnamon were the exceptions, but now there was more here, and he had been the cause of it. He led her, almost kicking and screaming, into friendship with other ponies. And she found that it made her stronger.

She sighed and looked up at him, It is like he gives hope out like it’s candy in his pockets.

As they traveled she began to hear something in the distance. At first she played it off as the normal madness of the Wastelands but as they got closer the sound was clearer. It was an accordion playing a jaunty tune. It sounded happy, creepy, and a more than a little unnerving. As they got closer the building itself wasn’t what she was expecting. She had been expecting some horrific site, a terrible pony eating entity residing as a building, but instead it looked cheerful, or at least as cheerful as an abandoned building could look.

“Ministry of Morale, Cheesetastic Entertainment Plaza?” Salty read, “What in the Hay is that?”

Lyra’s eyebrows furrowed, “It’s a Ministry of Morale hub… Be careful.”

They walked toward the building and the music stopped, the only music still going was the music that was coming out of the Pipboy being worn by the only human in the group. Instead a voice, familiar to Twilight, came over the intercom.

“Voice print identification, pretty, pretty please?!”

As luck would have it the previous song on the Pipboy ended and instead a different song began to play in its place.

“Voice Print Accepted! Welcome back Cheese Sandwich!”

A clicking sound echoed as the doors unlocked, and then they opened completely. The group stepped into the building, only to find that the door closed behind them. Dozens of multicolored lights lit up around them illuminating the entire place in psychedelic party style frenzy. There was dozens of tables, rolls upon rolls of various arcade games, and then there was a stage with what looked like six figures standing on it. One of the figures stepped forward, a light shining on it presenting a perfectly preserved Automaton created to look like the mare of the Ministry of Morale herself.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts! Put your hooves together for the Friendship Review! We’re here to dance, to sing, and to entertain you while you enjoy the party put together by one of the greatest Party Ponies on the planet, Cheese Sandwich!”

Lyra moved forward, “This place frightened those ponies?”

The automaton’s eyes glowed red, it moved its face toward Lyra, “Unauthorized Party goer!”

The eyes of the other Automatons opened revealing the same red glow, and they stepped forward toward the edge of the stage. There, before them was the six mares of the various ministries, or rather it was automatons designed to look like them. They jumped off of the stage something that ended up being a mistake. While the building looked to be in good shape it was still a building that was well over two hundred years old with very little upkeep other than a small cleaning bot.

The floor gave way under the automatons and under the group that had entered. All of them fell through to a basement that was something a little more sinister than what was above. There, before them, was hundreds of tubes containing ponies in them. Twilight stepped forward, her eyes widened.

“I...I made this.”

Eyes fell on her as she walked toward the automatons that were now switched off, thanks to the fall, and she sat down, “I remember when Pinkie came to me. Her and her second in command, Cheese Sandwich. It was before she was taking so many of those PTMs… Oh Celestia she didn’t fool me for a second. She said it was to help make ponies feel better, but she was doing it for Cheese. She liked him, really liked him, and she wanted a way to make sure…”

She breathed out, “It’s not exactly a Stable, but ponies that were here when the megaspell bombs hit would have been escorted downstairs by the automatons and put into these pods. They were specially designed, able to withstand the blast and radiation, and they were designed to open once it was safe. The problem was she wanted it fixed so that Cheese Sandwich was completely over it. She wanted him safe. She wanted him and…”

She took off galloping down the rolls, the rest of them behind her until they came to a place where there was an orange Earth Pony stallion inside of a pod with a small dark pink filly. The stallion’s mane was in boloney curls, so was his tail, and he had a hawaiian shirt on. The little dark pink filly had a lighter pink mane and tail both with a brown stripe going right down the center.

“Are they… Dead?” Lyra asked.

Twilight shook her head, “They’re sleeping. All of them are sleeping. These pods are designed to keep them in suspended animation until it’s safe to release them, I don’t know why it… your Pipbuck, can you get it to play that song from earlier?”

Their human friend nodded, went into the directory where the music was, selected the song, and played it. As it played the terminal beside the pod began to come to life. A few moments later a hissing sound erupted and the pod itself opened. The two ponies looked stiff for a moment before a soft pink glow surrounded them and the fell out. Before they could hit Cream caught them with her magic and let them down carefully.

“Oooowwww, my head is hurting, Strawberry, are you okay?”

“Uh huh… I’m okay Daddy.”

The Stallion opened his eyes, shook his head, and groaned, “Okay, everything’s a little blurry, but that’s okay.”

Twilight looked around behind his pod and her eyes widened. There was more pods here than there should have been. The memory was a little fuzzy, but she remembered only making about two hundred pods for this place, but it was more like twenty times that many. The realization hit her.

“Oh, Celestia’s sweet mercy, the automatons, they must have kept building pods, putting them onto the circuit, and put the ponies that got too close into them!”

Cheese’s eyes finally cleared up some, or at least good enough to see everyone that was standing close to him, “Minister Twilight? You’re an Alicorn?! Wha… Is Pinkie here?”

The sound of whirring gears caught their attention. The group looked behind them to see the Automatons once again standing.

“Unregistered Party goers! Unregistered Party goers must be placed in the pony s…” it began before Cheese moved forward.

“Identification SPPTF01.”

The Automaton stopped, “Password?”

“Parties are Serious.”

“Password and identification accepted, Hi CHEESE!”

He smiled, “Hello Pinkie #9, now, would you kindly mind to help wake up the party guests?”

The automaton nodded, and walked toward its group before they began to spread out through the basement.

“So, really, Where’s Pinkie?”

The After Party

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The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 7: The AfterParty...

He understood the feeling. He watched the stallion they just woke up standing at the terminal, playing a message again for the fifteenth time.

“Cheese, take care of Strawberry. I… I’ve got to see this through. Besides, After I get done I’m going to go see Twilight, and… I’m going to have them clean me. You were right Cheese, I haven’t been the same Pinkie, but I needed to take the Party-Time Mint-als. I needed to be at my absolute Pinkie Best to help stop this war. I just wanted tell you… I love you Cheese, and you too Strawberry. Pinkie Pie, signing off.”

He watched as the stallion hit the button to play it again. He walked toward him.

“Want to talk?”

The stallion sighed, stopped the recording, and looked at the lone human, “I… Has it really been two hundred years?”

He could see the worry, the small spark of hope that this was just some incredibly insensitive practical joke, and the crushing depression that threatening to come at him because somewhere he knew that wasn’t the case. It was all there in that stallion eyes. The same thing that had been in his when he first woke up and realized what had happened. He took a seat, scanning through his MP3 files until he came across one he hadn’t played.

“Hi Honey! I know you’re always listening to this thing, and I know that you normally just plug it in and sort of drift off while you’re writing, or running, or anything else. Which, thank you for using it instead of that old Walk-Man… Anyway, I wanted to sing a little something for you. Rock-a-bye Baby in the Tree top! More than likely you’re trying to guess what I’m talking about, right?! You’re gonna be a daddy! I just did the test! I love you!”

He stopped it, looked at Cheese, and gave a sad smile, “It’s been two hundred years. That was my wife, Sarah. A little less than a year before I got into an accident,” he took a seat on the floor and patted it. The stallion took a seat next to him, “There’s going to be a lot of folks telling you that they know how you feel, but they really don’t.” he laughed mirthlessly, “They can’t. They honestly can’t understand what it’s like knowing that everything you knew is gone. Family, friends, everything,” he looked at the wall, “But, having a few friends does help make it easier.”

He stretched out his hand, “I’m willing to be your friend.”

Cheese gave him his hoof, and then he sighed, “You know, all I ever wanted to do was make ponies smile. Pinkie inspired me to do that. I happened to see one of her first parties, and I was inspired to become a Party Pony like her,” he laughed and looked at his daughter who was giggling and playing Salty, “Strawberry makes it easier, but if everything really is gone then the Ministry of Morale is needed more than ever.”

Cheese got up, “Pinkie and I had a plan that wasn’t just about spying on everypony, but actually making ponies happy. Everypony needs some happiness, so the Ministry is certainly needed, at least in that respect.”

The automaton of Pinkie Pie walked back toward Cheese Sandwich before sitting on its rump, “All of the Party guests are waking up Cheese! There’s a few that are frowny, frowny pants, but Twilight-02 and Fluttershy-06 said that they can make sure they won’t cause any trouble!”

Cheese nodded, “Pinkie… Sorry Pinkie Pie-09, tell me, are there more pods here than there was before?”

“Yepperonni! We kept getting Party Guests over the last two hundred years, so we needed to bring them down here to be held until they party could start!”

He looked at it, “How many Party Guests do we have?”

The automaton rubbed its chin, “There are two thousand, three hundred, fifty-two party guests, and three pets.”

“Pets?” Cheese asked.

“Yeppers! Some of the party guests had pets with them!”

“Moonglow! Where’s Moonglow?!” a pony shouted.

The pony moved toward them, she was wearing a suit, similar to the Vault Dwellers that had the number of 24 on it, “Has anypony seen Moonglow?! I… I need to find my daughter!”

He looked at them, “Please! Help me! My daughter and I escaped from our stable, and we came out this way, She’s gotta be so scared!”

He looked at the pony and nodded, “Okay, let’s look for her.”

Cheese got up and followed the they began walking through the mostly awake group of ponies. The stallion, which was a type of Pegasus Cheese hadn’t seen in awhile. It had been back when he was in Canterlot, and he had seen a few of the Lunar Pegasi when they were guarding Princess Luna. The stallion was nickering, trying to get the attention of his daughter. Finally, after reaching the rear of the area the three noticed that some of the wall had collapsed. They began to move forward when all three of them felt a tug of magic. The Lunar Pegasus stallion turned to see a Unicorn that looked slate gray, white mane, and the angrist green eyes he’d ever seen. She walked up to the weird Minotaur thing that was wearing a stable suit and poked him in the chest.

“We need to get the copper, and get back! You don’t know what’s back there!”

The Lunar Pegasus growled, “My daughter might be back there!”

She looked at him, then at the bald hornless, obviously mutated Minotaur thing, “Of course, it makes sense, somepony is in trouble and you’re gonna jump in and help them out. You’re an idiot…”

She let go of them, and instead they watched as she began lifting stones out of the way. As she did there was a feral sounding growl, and then pony that looked patchy and rotted lept out at them. It slammed into the Lunar Pegasus knocking him back, Its mouth was full of broken sharp teeth, teeth it used to sink into the Lunar Pegasus’ right foreleg. Without thinking the Vault Dweller grabbed the stock of Widow Maker and began to lift it. When he did he felt it becoming lighter. He pulled it forward, flipped it open, emptied the spent shells, loaded, it and fired.

He didn’t get thrown back, it didn’t bruise his shoulders, but instead he barely felt it fire. The ghoul however was ripped in half and sent tumbling. Another growl erupted and his V.A.T.S. came online for him to see the being ahead of him. It was another rotting pony, one that was smaller, and it let out a terrible growl and a hiss as it lunged out. He saw the percentage for hitting it in the chest go up to a hundred percent and he fired. Once he did the little rotted pony exploded into a fine red mist of chunks and old blood. Once the second shell was spent he felt the gun get heavy again. A small alarm got his attention and he looked at his Pipboy.

Cup and Cup Enterprises Enhancer has been depleted of power, please allow ten minutes before reuse.

He felt magic envelop the large double barrel shotgun, lift it, and put back into its holster.

“Well, at least we know that thing works.”

He nodded, turned on the illumination of his Pipboy, and stepped through the hole that led into the other side. There was four more pods, two of them had been broken open, and there looked to be something glowing near two of the pods. His Pipboy began registering the radiation levels warning that he would need to take some Rad-away to counter the low scale radiation. He then looked at the other two pods. Both of the ponies inside looked okay, and he looked back at Cheese who walked in and opened them.

For a moment there was little movement, but then a young lunar Pegasus Filly in a similar Vault jumpsuit to the stallion on the other side of the wall moved and fell forward. The other pony though didn’t move at all. Cheese touched the other one only to watch the pony fall out and lose her head. He stumbled back, but then looked at the filly. She sniffed, looked around, and yawned, “Where’s Daddy?”

Both Cheese and his new human friend lead the light blue filly a flat black mane and tail out of the hole into the room where her father who was reversely colored, was waiting. She quickly ran toward him, wrapping him into a hug. Cheese smiled as he watched the two nuzzle each other while hugging. Looking over at his friend he poked him with his hoof.

“I feel bad just calling you Stable Dweller, what’s your name?”

The man smiled at him, “My friends… what friends I had, called me Rusty.”

Cheese grinned, “Rusty it is then.”

He took in the Stable Dweller for the first time, really taking a look at him. He was tall, but if Cheese, or that mare that seemed to be his friend, who still seemed to be more than a little upset, was to stand on their hind legs they would easily be able to look him in the eyes. His skin was a soft caramel color, and while his eyes were certainly smaller than a pony’s they were a shade of emerald green that practically shined. Still, it was his copper red hair that stood out.

“So, I understand that you’re all needing some copper?”

Rusty nodded, “Yeah, we’re trying to get a train engined repaired.”

He looked at the pods behind them, “I remember Twilight saying that the sealed doors to these pods were lined with copper. Take as much as you need, and if you think it would be okay, I’d like to see about moving these ponies somewhere a bit safer.”

He grinned, “There’s two settlements nearby. Las Pegasus and Railway Town. I think that Las Pegasus might be big enough for everyone here, although I’m certain they could expand Railway town to be big enough. We’re going to be heading back to Railway Town anyway, maybe all of you could go with us.”

Cheese nodded, “Okay. I’ll start letting Ponies know.”

Cream Pie waited for Cheese to start heading into the main part before she moved toward the Stable Dweller, toward Rusty. She got onto her hind legs, pressing her forehooves into his shoulders. He looked at her, the green eyes that had so many emotions that he couldn’t even begin to explain, green eyes that practically screamed out her various emotions, and then he felt her push him back. Rusty had never claimed to be an aggressive man when it came to women. In truth he was far from that. He was certainly someone that was more than willing to stand up for what he believed in, but he normally wasn’t the kind to make the first move.

Sarah had been the one to start their relationship. She had told him that she saw something she wanted in him, and that she wouldn’t take no for an answer. And thus history repeated itself when he felt the lips of this very straight forward mare on his lips. Thousands of thoughts crossed his mind, and thousands more rushed forward, but the one thought that didn’t come to him was that it was wrong.

Maybe it was because he had believed they had been human, or maybe it was because of how human they acted, but the simple truth was that this mare was a confident woman in his eyes. She was strong, loyal, and willing to put up with him. So he found himself kissing her back. His hands snaking down her, finding her rump, and squeezing. She let out a cute sounding squeak when he did that, but nonetheless she didn’t stop kissing back. The two stood there, several seconds, holding each other, before finally she broke the kiss.

“You’re an idiot, but you’re my idiot.”

With that she walked, flicking her tail, and letting him have a complete unrestricted view of what she had to offer. She looked over her shoulder, a sly smile on her face, “Now, let’s get that copper, these ponies, and get the Tartarus out of her back to that stupid town so we can get that train.”

Cheese Sandwich watched as the group that had helped them out began stripping the doors off of the pods. He gave Strawberry a sad smile, knowing that his daughter most likely didn’t understand that her mother, his Pinkie, was never coming home. Pie had been a number of things, and unpredictable was among the biggest on the no kidding list. But even she couldn’t hope to escape the Grim Tyrant. He’d lead these ponies somewhere safe, take care of Strawberry, but he had to do something else as well. His Cheesy sense was going crazy, telling him that there was a need for parties all over Equestria.

He hadn’t lied when he said that the Ministry of Morale was needed more now than ever. It honestly was needed more now. It was needed because he had a feeling that a good deal of these ponies had given up hope. He wasn’t sure what it was like out there. But he was certain of one thing. He’d make Pinkie proud. Keeping Strawberry safe, and making ponies smile. That was his goal as the head of the Ministry of Morale.

Rusty felt someone looking at him, and he turned to see Salty with a smug grin. He wasn’t about to say a word, but instead the one winged Pegasus moved toward him.

“Bout time.”

Rusty knew what was coming, but he hoped that it would pass if he just kept working.

“She’s been a hoping that ya’d make a move ‘fore now, ya know.”

He stopped, “Salty, we’ve got a lot of work to do, a ton of ponies to lead out of here, and do you really want to talk about this now?”

“Yep, cause ya’ll are a gonna eventually bump hooves.”

He stretched, looked at his burnt orange coated friend. His mane was an off avocado green, so was his tale, but his eyes were weird. He had a blue one and a gold one. He’d heard Salty talking about getting patched up a while back, some town called New Appleloosa where the doctor there had replaced his eye with a donor eye from a patient that was no longer needing it.

He took a seat and looked at the pods they still needed to get before they had what he hoped was enough copper, “I don’t know what happened, but I’m not sorry about it. Things are odd, but I’m coming to accept that they are how they are,” he looked at Salty, “For one, I’ve come to accept that my wife is long dead, and I’m realizing that most likely this is the world that I’ve for now on.”

He laughed, “But it doesn’t matter. I like Cream, and whatever happens is going to happen,” he got up.

Salty looked at him, “So, why are you helping all of these ponies? Not that I don’t mind, but why?”

Rusty grinned, “Back home, before what happened to me, well happened, I used to love listening to all kinds of music. But one of my favorite singers was Bob Marley,” he lifted his Pipboy, scanning through the music files until he came one of his favorites and put it on, “See, I liked Bob Marley because he believed that you could cure racism and hate, cure it, by injecting good vibes and love into people’s lives.”

Salty smiled as Rusty leaned back, “And then one day someone showed up to his house and shot him. He was supposed to perform at a concert to help a whole lot of folks, and most folks figure that was why it happened. Still, he got seen by a doc, and that next night he went out and performed one of the best concerts of his life,” he looked at Salty who was sitting awe struck as he told the story, “A reporter asked him, why he didn’t cancel, and he said, ‘The people who are trying to make this world a worse place aren’t taking a day off, how can I? Light up the Darkness.’.”

Salty looked at him, “Well, yer certainly keeping what he said. I’d say this is lighting up the darkness purty well.”

Rusty looked at the all of the faces, some looking pretty paranoid, and then looked back at him, “We can only hope.”

The two of them got back to the copper, and after a couple of hours what they had, along with what Twilight, Lyra, and Cream had gathered seemed to be a pretty good amount of copper. The Exceptionally large group moved up the stairs, which in itself took hours, and then finally they began to move toward Railway Town. It’s rumored that stories still circulate about what happened when the first guard looked out over the horizon and say over two thousand ponies heading toward the township built around Friendship Express, Railway Station number fifteen. Some of those stories go along the lines that the guard, in a very stallion like voice, called that there was a massive number of refugees coming, and that they should open the gates and prepare for an influx of trade.

And then there’s the story where he screamed like a scared filly crying out, “The Horror! The Horror!” as he fell onto his back. Most of those that knew this stallion from the time he was a colt often go with the second telling as what most likely happened. Regardless of the stallion known as Lilly Livers might have done the fact was that the gates did open, and Sheriff Bronze Star stood and met with the current head of the Ministry of Morale. The Head of the Ministry of Morale informed him that he hoped the sheriff would be fine with a celebration being thrown both for Railway Town, and for the ponies who were finally going to get to enjoy a party after two hundred years.

It’s still unknown where the party cannon came from, how punch was made, or who brought the cakes.

Into the Wasteland

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The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 8: Into the Wasteland

Rusty looked at the steam engine as smoke poured from the stack. He never would have guessed that he would be using a mode of travel that was well outdated by the standards he knew before his car wreck. Some of the ponies that had came out of the Entertainment Plaza wanted to go further into the Wasteland, and one set of ponies wanted to go to Tenpony Tower. Rusty wasn’t sure if it was on the way or not, but since Railway Town was supplying the train it ultimately was up to them.

Their solution was to sell tickets to ride, with the understanding that one traveled at their own risk, for fifty bottle caps a head. The herd that had shut down the Entertainment Plaza, helped bring back the copper to repair the train, and bring back the hope that the ponies of the Wasteland so badly needed was granted lifetime passes to ride, with the understanding that the train wasn’t to be their personal travel across Equestria at a moment’s notice device. They could ride when the train was available, and they would be riding to where it was going. This trip to the Crystal Empire was just an added bonus and a thank you.

Cream neared the human she claimed as her own. It wasn’t odd to see a pony with a different creature. The Wasteland tended to do away with a great deal of the separation that had been present in Pre-War Equestria. As she neared him she looked at the train itself. There wasn’t a spot of glass in any of the windows, there was places the metal had been warped, but it did look to be in good enough shape to make the trip. She honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. There had been stories about the mirror, about the other world, but mostly it was old stories that had circulated around for years.

Lyra had said it was real, and she even revealed that she’d made it the Crystal Empire on hoof before. That didn’t surprise her, not really. Being a ghoul was right next to being immortal. Technically speaking the one pony that would most likely survive the Wasteland was Lyra herself. She took a moment to look at her ghoulish friend again and noticed, perhaps for the first time, how around her right foreleg it looked like something had been cut away.

Lyra, who stood a little ways from Cream and Rusty, noticed that she was being watched. She figured she knew what it was that was being studied on her. She was a ghoul, no getting around that, but she was a Canterlot ghoul. Most likely one of her new friends noticed the missing bit of muscle and skin that was about the size of a Pipbuck. She still remembered when it happened. The Slavers at Las Pegasus hadn’t removed it but rather it had been an administrator of the Ministry of Arcane Science that wanted to study the effects of prolonged Pink Cloud exposure to a Pipbuck.

In return for the device he had offered to do what he could to get her records of everyone that was supposed to be present inside of Stable 1. It had been a few years at this point, actually it was going on ten years at this point, she and Lemon Hearts had been changed, but she wanted that hope that maybe her Bonny had made it into the stable, that with any luck Bon Bon had a chance at a good full life in safety. She certainly regretted not being closer to the stable when the cloud hit. She would have loved to have been there with her Bon Bon, but things came up. Things like what was left inside of the Saddlebags that was still fused to her. Saddle bags that easily could, and often was, confused for her coat.

She opened one of the flaps on her right saddlebag, knowing that of the two sides it was the only one that opened freely. The other side, well the lash had fused quite securely to her flank. A flank she remembered Bon Bon saying was one of her better features. A soft heat crossed her cheeks as she thought of Bonny, her marefriend, kissing her, telling her how beautiful she was, laying her back and kissing down her until she reached the green valley of promise.

She grinned, but regardless she floated it out. Somehow it was still preserved, stuck together thanks to the Pink Cloud, but still preserved nonetheless. Occasionally she’d break off of a piece of the ancient Caramels and chew on it. Letting the Pink Cloud trapped inside of it help heal her. They were one of Bon Bon’s signature candies. She let out a soft sigh, looked at her friends once more, and gave them a gentle wave. She watched her two friends, certain that at some point they would be making the beast with six legs, and she found herself completely satisfied with that.

She glanced over at Salty, and she noticed how his shoulder moved near the missing wing. She’d seen it before, other Pegasi that had their wings removed, like that little filly back in Las Pegasus, she hated it too. She watched as he talked to Brass Cup. It seemed like he was in a very expressive discussion about something of some great importance. She wasn’t sure what to think of the Minotaur Cow, but hopefully whatever Salty was talking about with her wouldn’t be something that would come back and bite all of them in plot when he was done.

“Yes, I can build it, but I need the parts to do it.”

A small feeling of triumph shot through Salty. A new wing, a new shiny metal wing at that. Well, at least a new wing. He knew that it was likely not to be shiny. There wasn’t much shiny anymore. But the prospect of being able to fly again, oh, that was exciting.

“What do ya need?”

She rolled her eyes, reached into her pocket, and pulled out three folded pieces of paper, from them she pulled out a sheet that had two columns of words written in some of the finest quill work he’d ever seen. She then looked at Salty, noticed his lack of a Pipbuck, and looked around before she sighed, dug out another folded piece of paper, this one blank, and began copying things from the first piece to the new piece. She quickly handed it to him.

“This is what I’ll need, and it’s going to be expensive. Something like this is going to be a thousand bottlecaps, at least that much, and if you keep bothering me about doing it I can promise it will be more.”

Salty nodded, took the paper, and slid it into the saddlebags that his human friend had found in Las Pegasus. The duty of carrying those bags had fallen to him, and he didn’t mind, not really. Right now he had the bulk of their bottle caps, some ammo, and two apple grenades that he’d found in Las Pegasus. Since they hadn’t had a use for them he decided to just carry them until there was a situation needed for them.

He gave Brass Cup a smile, looked around, and saw where some of his friends were at. He saw Cream and Rusty. Anypony that watched the two knew that at some point Cream would letting Rusty take her hard and fast. There had been a time that he thought about what it would have been like to be with Cream, but that changed. He stopped viewing her as somepony that he’d be interested in physically, and instead he saw a sister. A sister that could be right imitating when she wanted to be.

It was funny that Rusty was able to bring out her softer side. Not that she had much of one, but it was there, and somehow their human friend seemed to be able to draw it out. His eyes drifted over to Lyra who seemed to be lost in her own head again. He couldn’t even begin to understand where she was at. She had over two hundred years on him, and he knew that she must have seen damned near everything there was to see by now. Seeing Rusty seemed to be one missing thing that she hadn’t actually gotten to see yet. He watched her as she closed her eyes and seemed to be humming to herself. He then looked at Twilight.

Twilight, the mare of the Ministry of Arcane Science, reborn as an Alicorn. She had freely admitted that she was more than Twilight. She had said that there was other ponies in there, but that Twilight composed most of who she was. She was currently talking with Cheese Sandwich, laughing, and obviously finding out more about herself in the process. He could only imagine what it was like to have to relearn about yourself.

Twilight smiled at Strawberry as the filly made faces and goofed off. She was adorable, and to be honest she was so much like her mother, like Pinkie Pie. She had memories about Pinkie, some scattered memories, but they all pointed to the fact that Pinkie was one of her best friends. She also knew that Pinkie had needed her help, but there was just so much that she couldn’t get past. The Party Time Mint-als was one of them. She could remember Pinkie taking them, swearing that she needed to take them. She remembered how it caused something of a ripple effect, causing damage to their friendship hurting Pinkie’s relationship with Cheese Sandwich, even damaging the working relationships she had with the ponies posted in the Ministry of Morale itself.

She felt a pang of guilt as she thought about her old friend. There had been something, something she didn’t remember, but something that had been said between the two of them. Something she regretted very deeply. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she knew that she wished she could take it back. Listening to Cheese did help her to remember a few things, and she couldn’t help but float Strawberry up to her and give her a friendly raspberry on her belly.

The little filly kicked and squealed happily, and shortly after Twilight sat her down. Cheese took a seat on his haunches and Twilight did the same.

“Do… Do you think that she could be alive out there?”

She didn’t need to ask who he meant. She’d been wondering the same thing honestly. Could Pinkie be alive? Could she have been like Cheese, inside of a suspended animation pod, or maybe a ghoul like Lyra? The questions came to her, but as she thought about it she began to realize that it was very unlikely. Pinkie had this ability to know where her friends were. She was able to turn up, seemingly out of nowhere, and surprise anypony. The fact that Pinkie hadn’t found them, or came looking for Cheese and Strawberry before now spoke volumes.

She knew that her friend was actually dead. Pinkie wasn’t the kind to abandon her friends, her family, and for her to not be there meant that she couldn’t be there. The guilty feeling in the pit of Twilight’s stomach gnawed at her. She had said something, something terrible to Pinkie, and she couldn’t remember what it was. All she knew was that she hurt her friend, and as she talked to the pony that was her friend’s special somepony she silently wondered how she could take it back.

The sound of the Train’s whistle caught the attention of everypony, and soon those that were traveling began to gather closer. Of the ponies in Railtown there was only a few that actually knew how to operate the recently repaired engine. Of those few the one that was going to be running it was an older stallion. He was an Earth Pony, big, burley, and his flank had a set of crosshairs for Cutie Marks. He looked like the kind of pony you tried to avoid out in the wasteland, and after a moment he finally spoke up.

The images of this prime of example of an Earth Pony changed a moment later when the most sophisticated, and enlightened voice most of the citizens of Railtown ever heard came from a pony that looked like he could have walked out into the Wasteland and had everything bowing to him in a day.

“The train will be leaving on time, and by Jove I intend to keep the schedule that has been presented to me by Sheriff Bronze Star. Now, on our first trip out we will be going to the Crystal Empire,” he waited while several of the ponies talked among themselves, “We will also be stopping in Manehattan a short walk from Tenpony Tower. Sheriff Bronze Star has already spoken to the tower occupants themselves, and they have promised to have a security detail waiting at the station.”

“Will we be stopping anywhere else?!”

The large Aqua blue Earth Pony rolled his eyes, “We will also be stopping in Junction Town. Apparently Sheriff Bronze Star has spoken to a representative of the Talons, and they have agreed to become… security for the Train in exchange for usage of the train to transport goods, refugees, and other committees. Sheriff Bronze Star agreed to those terms. Those three stops are the planned stops. There will be unplanned stops along the way. Most likely we will have to clear the track from time to time. Regardless if you paid or not you will be expected to aid in any work done along the route. Is that understood?”

There was a murmur of acknowledgement, and the Earth Pony shook his head, causing his blond mane to fling droplets of sweat away from him, “Good, then as Engineer it is my privilege to welcome you aboard the Railway Town Express, All Aboard!”

Rusty and his odd herd of friends gathered into one of the old passenger cars that had been moved and connected to the coal car that was right behind the engine. He watched as two other ponies, another Pegasus, and a Unicorn moved to the side of the train and seemed to be climbing up. He could only figure that they were up there as protection. The train’s whistle let out its lonely call, and the engine began to lurch forward. As it moved Rusty felt oddly calm.

He’d ridden in car pulled by a steam engine, back home, well before the accident, and he could recall how powerful the train felt. He even remembered that some idiot had tried to leave a car on the track in order to get the train to stop. Of course the engine did stop, about two miles down the road, after it had ripped through the car like tissue paper. That memory seemed to make him feel far more at ease. They were inside of a powerful steel beast that was heading out into the Wastelands.

He looked at his group, and noticed how Cream was leaning against him. Her eyes closed as she slept. Salty was smiling, bouncing a little on the seat, enjoying the chance to enjoy a ride that wasn’t connected to becoming a slave. Lyra was watching the world pass by through the open window, which they were all open, and she seemed to be far away, her mind occupied by thoughts that he didn’t feel the need to ask about, and then there was Twilight. Twilight seemed focused, her eyes telling the story of a woman, well mare, that was determined to do something.

He felt Cream move closer to him, her head falling into his lap. He was about to say something when he felt her nuzzle his crotch. His eyes widened, unsure if she understood what she was doing, but then he watched as she opened and eye, jumped down, and flicked her tail at him. Figuring that it would be an idea to follow he did exactly that. They moved from the passenger car to the caboose behind it. She stood on her hind legs, kissing him, and he returned it. Despite how she looked, she was a woman. Sarah was dead, long dead, and nothing could ever change that.

Cream however was here, alive, and she cared deeply for him. He’d tried to play it off, but there wasn’t any way he really could. He felt himself falling for her as well, and then watched as she moved toward a box, crawled on it, moved her tail and put her face on her front legs.

“Don’t make me beg, but make me your mare.”

He moved forward, his hands resting on her rump, “Are you sure?”

She looked back at him, “Idiot, of course I’m sure, so please, do it…”

His hands found the straps for his Vault-Tech jumpsuit, undoing them, lowering them, and then he pulled his boxers down to his knees with the rest of his suit. He moved up closer, and he could feel the heat radiating from her. He slowly moved forward, causing her to let loose a soft moan. Inch by inch he pushed until he was bottomed out in her. There was no resistance, but regardless she was tight. He felt her gripping him, her inner walls massaging his length. He leaned forward, kissing the tip of her horn, and she moaned again. Standing back up, he rested his hands on her hips, pulling back a little, and then slamming forward.

She grunted, moaned, nickered, and what from her experience normally was a quick thing turned out to be a thirty minute orgasm filled romp. She lay on the floor, next to him, her entire body quivering like jelly. She looked up at him, and two things crossed her mind. One, he was her Stallion, and if any other mare so much as looked at him she’d make them get really good and acquainted with their own tailhole. The second one was questioning if there would be any foals from their coupling. She knew that it worked with other species, so it was certainly possible. She smiled at the possibility, laid her head on his chest, and closed her eyes.

Neither knew that outside, in the wasteland, news about a working train had spread, and there was more than a few interested parties that were heading toward them in order to claim this rusty jewel for their own.

Born to be Wild

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The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 9: Born to be Wild

There are some that say the sounds of gunfire is the new nighttime lullaby of the Wasteland. That hearing a shotgun, pistol, or cannon go off is the night chorus ponies had chosen for themselves. Nopony had ever bothered to tell Rusty that. He hunkered down, his ten millimeter pistol in hand, listening to the sound of bullets striking the side of the passenger car they were in. Angry shouts from outside, shouts demanding that they stop, give up, let the train go, and an entire collection of other things came from the group of Raiders outside.

Of course he returned fire when he could, and the Engineer was certainly intelligent enough to keep the train running. They had already crashed through something, but the train didn’t derail, it didn’t even rock back and forth, but instead it simply kept going. Riding in a belly of a steel beast certainly had its benefits. He raised up, just enough to look out, and ducked down before the bullet that kissed his empty window had a chance to claim him as its own. He raised up again, returning fire, and watched as the Unicorn he hit tumbled off of a cart being pulled by several Earth Ponies.

A few scant hours ago he had been in the Caboose, with Cream, actually inside of Cream, and now she, well she was there with him, her face angry, her revolver floating in the air, and she was shouting at them. It was fairly obvious to anyone watching that Cream was tired of Raiders, Slavers, and any other pony, gryphon, or anything else that wanted to make life difficult. She fired three shots, ducked down, and let the bullets fly past her.

“What in the name of Celestia’s tight tailhole are those idiots on the top of the train doing?! Are they playing cards or something?!”

He ignored her rant, knowing that most likely those two ponies were doing their best to hold off the attack with the limited numbers they had. The fact that he, and his herd of friends, was willing to help seemed to be greatly appreciated by those running the Railway Town Express. Rusty wasn’t a dick, or at least he didn’t think so, but he couldn’t help but wonder if they would be giving him and his friends some ammo at the end of this voyage. Since they obviously spent a large chuck on these Raiders.

Rusty heard the peppering of the sides of the train, the occasional suicidal Raider deciding to try and ram the cars only to end up under the wheels, and he lost count of the time that passed as it happened. Memories of being in American History, listening to the professor drone on about World War II, reading the stories left behind by the soldiers as they wrote about being inside of their ships, listening to the sounds of aircraft peppering their hulls with machine gun fire. As a student he never had anything to compare what that must have been like. Now, with these Raiders peppering the train, fighting to make it stop, and doing everything in their power to take it for themselves he understood.

He understood the madness those soldiers must have felt. To know that above them was fighters doing everything they could to take out the aircraft firing on them, and to feel so helpless about it. Of course he wasn’t totally helpless. He did shoot at the Raiders, usually getting one or two of them, but this group was fairly large. Their numbers had began shrinking, but he wasn’t sure how long they would hold out until they decided it wasn’t worth it, or the train came to a section of track they had to stop at.

Of course, when that happened he had no illusion about what would happen. Those Raiders would board the train, and there would be a firefight that would result in massive casualties on both sides. He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t let it come to that. So he chanced a look again to see one Raider specifically, one that was on top of a wagon, shouting orders. He nudged Cream who looked and then smiled.

“Must be the idiot that thought this was a good idea. Normally Raiders will keep fighting, even after their leader dies, but they become pretty unorganized fairly quickly. We take him out, I bet they fall apart pretty quick.”

The problem that was presented wasn’t something to be sneezed at. The only semi long range weapons theyhad was the pistols. A rifle would be excellent, but he didn’t think that anyone had one. At least he didn’t until he watched one of the ponies move from their seat. Their movement caught his eye, and then he looked above where they had been. There, in the luggage holder of the passenger car was a bolt action rifle. he moved toward it, taking a quick moment to stand and grab it. A shot rang out, and he felt the burning kiss of lead as it caressed my side. He fell to the floor, holding onto the rifle, trying to ignore the pain. He checked and saw that there was a shell in the chamber. He released the small magazine and saw there was four more waiting. He had five shots. Just five. He felt thankful there was a scope, although it was oddly place. He quickly realized it was a weapon for a pony.

The scope hung over the side, meant to be held by magic, and for him it was worthless. It’d have to open sites. He moved toward Cream, who looked upset to see his wound, and then she saw the rifle. Before he could protest she took it from him, her magic leveled it out, getting the scope by her eye, she aimed it toward the wagon carrying the Raider that was shouting at his troops, and then she fired. The first shot hit him, but it wasn’t a killing shot. It struck his foreleg, causing him to curse. The wagon began moving away from the train, and she wasn’t letting him get away. She worked the bolt with her magic, ejected the shell, and then loaded the next one.

Once more the rifle barked at the pony, once more she struck him, but while it wounded him, it didn’t kill him. He held his chest, his mouth open in agony, unknown words and curses escaped those pained lips, and Cream didn’t give a whorse’s loose tailhole what he was screaming about. She worked the bolt, loaded the next shell, and it found a happy home in his head. He slumped over, falling off of the wagon, and soon the Raiders began drifting back. She knew they weren’t gone, but instead they were confused.

Eventually they would be back, but when they were they would be mindless, idiotic, and far easier to deal with. She looked at Rusty, her human, and got him up to the seat. A healing potion found its way into his mouth, and he breathed as they continued on their way. The train finally began to slow, and the sound of the breaks being applied caught their attention. She began to question what was going on when she realized that the tracks were leading into something of a large settlement composed of gryphons, ponies, and even some zebras.

The sight of overturned train cars caught her attention, and she realized that they were entering Junction Town. The train had been slowing for a while, and it finally stopped, coming to rest next to a platform that looked to be mostly rebuilt from the original train station here. The two ponies riding on the top of the train entered through the hatch in the roof, and she could see that their time up there had been fairly unpleasant. Deciding not to give them a piece of her mind for not doing more she instead watched as they stepped off of the train.

After a few minutes one of them poked his head back into the passenger car, “Folks, we’re going to be staying in Junction town for about eight hours. We need to rest, we need to resupply, and if I’m being honest, I could use a damned drink. So, I suggest that all of you take a moment to get out, and look around, and maybe find some place nice to rest up for a few hours.”

Slowly the group of ponies on the passenger car left it, and before long there was talk spreading about the new Stable Dweller. Cream shook her head, and then she heard the radio in the distance, “Wastelanders, time for more hope. It seems that our new Stable Dweller recently rescued a load of ponies that were trapped in an old Ministry of Morale hub. Those poor ponies had been inside of several pods, frozen in what seemed like time, for quite a while. Apparently one of those ponies is actually now the acting head of the Ministry of Morale. That’s right Equestria, one of the original Party Ponies is still alive, and promising to spread good cheer through the wastelands! So, thank you! Thank you Stable Dweller for making things just a little bit better! This is DJ Pon-3, and now, enjoy some soothing tones from Sweetie Belle herself.”

As they walked a group of Gryphons neared them. Cream wasn’t sure what was going on, but one stepped in front of them, blocking their way. She was about to say something when Rusty laid a hand on her back. She nodded, and watched as he stepped forward.

“Can we help you?”

The Gryphoness, a crow headed gryphon, apparently one of the rarer breeds, nodded, “I believe so. Captain Grimfeathers would like to meet with you. I believe she wants to see if you’d be interested in a job.”

Rusty knew enough to know that when someone was talking like that they didn’t mean they were interested to see if he was interested, but that rather he was going to do this, regardless if he wanted to or not, but at least being civil about it wouldn’t land him in deeper shit. He followed the gryphons, Cream, and the rest of his friends, behind him. They entered into a building that looked mostly repaired, and sitting down at an old metal desk was a large gryphoness. She had the look of someone who had seen war in one form, or another, for years. Her hawk like face had a long scar running across it, but her eye met his own. He could see her studying him for a few moments before she stood on her hind legs and offered her taloned claw to him. He took it, shook, and was offered a seat.

“Not going to lie, when I heard about another Stable Dweller, specifically one that looked like a mutated minotaur, I had my doubts. Yet here you are,” she said as she walked around her desk, “You’ve become something of a celebrity, and that’s just fine. These ponies need hope, something to believe in. The stories of Littlepip, that ghost that walked the big 52 looking for her mother, those stories give ponies hope, but sometimes they have to see something to really believe it.”

She took a seat near him, “So, that brings me to my job offer. I understand that you’re needing to get to the Crystal Empire, and I won’t stop you from going, but I’d like you to help bring back some hope to these ponies. Along the way, there’s going to be a town, or rather a model of a town, that’s roughly about a day’s extra travel for your train. It will be after you leave Manehattan, so those ponies getting off there won’t have a thing to complain about.”

“What’s there?” Salty asked.

She chuckled, “The town was created by Solaris Corporation. The hope, I want you to bring, is to shut down the automated defense systems of the town.”

Lyra listened, shook her head, and then looked at the gryphoness, “Shut down… You’re wanting us to open up Sweet Ridge, aren’t you?”

Gawdyna looked at her, and nodded, “Yes, I want you to open up Sweet Ridge. It’s a model town, with only automatons, sprite bots, and a few helper drones occupying it. However, those security bots, and gun turrets, pretty much keeps everyone out of it,” she sighed, “Look, I’m fine with taking refugees here, but having another place for these ponies to call home, especially a place that is teeming with fresh water, crops, and fully stocked food pantries like Sun City, would be a bonus. Not to mention we could ensure that those inside of it don’t destroy it trying to claim it for themselves.”

“Not to be a dick or anything, but what’s the pay?”

She looked at him, at the Stable Dweller, and she breathed a sigh of relief, “The pay is a place of residence in Sweet Ridge, a few of my troops to help out when needed, and the thanks of potentially thousands of ponies.”

Wasted Jewel

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The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 9: Wasted Jewel

Time never stops for anyone. That was something Rusty’s favorite professor had said time and time again. He often spoke how the wheels of time simply continued to move regardless of how men and women rallied against it. The short time they’ve spent in Junction town was certainly proof of that. There was still a couple of hours before they would leave, and so Rusty and Cream decided to visit the small diner that had been made from one of the old box cars. Walking into it Rusty smelled something he hadn’t had since his accident. He walked toward a table, taking a seat on a stool, and sniffed the heavenly smell.

A young Earth Pony mare, who was missing part of her right ear, trotted to their table. She flipped open a battered old notepad, gave a practiced smile, and looked at them, “Welcome to Flip’s, I’m Dusty Rose and I’ll be your waitress, what would you like to order?”

Rusty didn’t miss a beat as he looked at her, “Do I smell burgers and fries?”

She nodded, “House special. Is that what you’d like?”

He nodded, “Yes ma’am, thank you.”

She looked at Cream who seemed to be studying the menu, “I’ll have the Cherry Jubilee Fruit Salad, and a piece of apple pie, please.”

Dusty nodded, wrote their orders down, and headed toward the kitchen. Rusty listened to the sounds of the ponies, gryphons, and zebras in the diner. Most of the talk was fairly animated, nothing too serious, but then he heard the beginning of the murmuring, the whispering, and finally the looks. He was getting more used to it, and honestly most of the ponies he’d come across simply accepted him as he was. It was a young Earth Pony stallion that finally decided to approach them. Rusty took notice of his coloring. He was a rust red, his mane was a straw broom yellow, and his cutie mark seemed to be that of a duel crosshairs meeting together at the edges.

“Mister, are you the Stable Dweller we’ve been hearing about? That mutated Minotaur that’s been helping ponies?”

He sighed, “I’m called a human, I came from a Vault, not a Stable, but yes I’m him.”

He smiled, turned around, and laughed, “Ha! Told you!” he then looked at them both, “Do you mind if I take a seat here with you?”

Rusty offered the stool and the pony climbed up on it, “Name’s Sure Shot. I uh… well to be honest I was kind of hoping that I could travel with you.”

“Why?”

He looked at Cream, “Well, I’d like to do some treasure hunting, and I figured that being with the new Stable Dweller, sorry Vault Dweller, would maybe get me to where there’s some decent treasure. Plus, I can offer my gun and shooting skills. You point at something and I’ll have it shot and dead before your hoof can finish getting straight.”

Rusty looked at him, and while he wasn’t a judge of age when it came to ponies he had to imagine that this stallion was barely an adult. He wasn’t going to make the default arguments, because he had already seen first hand what kind of horrors waited out here. Instead he shrugged, “If you want to come along, I won’t stop you, but you’re going to be earning our trust. Everyone in our group has proven themselves time and time again.”

He beamed with pride, “I’ll earn that trust then. When are we leaving?”

No sooner had his question left his lips than Dusty Rose returned with what had to be the greatest thing he’d ever seen and smelled in his life. The plate was obviously hot, but it quickly found itself in front of him. There on what looked like simple sandwich bread was a thick burger patty, slice of cheese, and he could smell the deli mustard on top. She passed Cream her meal, left their ticket, but he could have cared less about the price. Instead he lifted the patty, bit into it, and tasted absolute heaven.

“Not that I’m complaining, after all a pony’s got to eat, but I didn’t realize that you liked meat so much.”

He looked at Cream as she ate her salad. It made sense. Most of what they’d eaten so far had been fairly vegetarian. He shrugged, took another bite, chewed, enjoyed the greasy taste, and then swallowed, “Omnivore, basically able to eat both meat and vegetables,” he said before he took another bite and enjoyed the taste of the first burger that had touched his lips in over two hundred years, “Meat is an important part of my diet, but I can survive without it for long periods of time. Usually humans only eat something that has no real intelligence, although before my accident there was a new company that was producing synthetic meat. So, I’m guessing that they most likely switched to that.”

Sure Shot looked at Rust and grinned, “Guess that means you like the Radrat burger huh?”

He stopped chewing, “Rat?”

Sureshot nodded, “Well sure, I mean it’s a little trouble hunting them, but they make some tasty burgers.”

Cream smiled, watched him, and Rusty took another bite, “Still the best damned burger I’ve had in two hundred years.”

“Two hundred… Are you a ghoul? You sure don’t look like one.”

He grinned at the question, and he looked at Sure Shot, “No, I’m not a ghoul. I put into cryogenic sleep, sort of like what they did to those ponies you might have heard about on the radio. It just so happened that my pod opened up,” he looked at Cream and smiled, “Glad that it did. Things have been interesting, and a phrase from where I come from is, ‘may you live in interesting times.’.”

Sure Shot let a bark of laughter escape his lips, “Well, everything we’ve been hearing about you sure sounds like it’s pretty interesting.”

The rest of the meal was mostly eaten in peace. Cream had a slight blush, obviously she had no intention of simply saying how much his words affected her, but once they paid, which twelve bottle caps didn’t seem much to Rusty, but Cream practically explained that the rat burger must have been made of minced bottlecaps for it to be that expensive. Rusty didn’t argue, but instead he thanked them, paid in full, and was told that he was always welcomed back. They left the diner, and they walked out to the sight of a staggering unicorn who was cursing toward Salty.

The three of them walked toward the unicorn who was shaking a hoof accusingly at him, “All of youse bird ponies… Abandoned us! Left us here to rot! And what for?! So youse could live up there in those clouds withoutta a care in the whole world!”

Salty shook his head, “Not all of us wanted that! I came to the surface to help, several of us did before the sky opened up.”

The Unicorn didn’t seem to hear him, or simply didn’t care. He growled, stomped his hoof, and looked at Salty with an expression Rusty had certainly seen before. It was a righteous rage, the kind that was reserved for someone that wanted to hate another person because of what they believed, who they were, where they came from, being poor, being rich, it didn’t matter because there was some imagined slight they felt. And the only way to make it better, the only way to heal, was to take it out on someone that matched all they hated. The Unicorn let out a yell ran forward, any chance of diplomacy was gone, and Rusty didn’t even think. He side checked the Unicorn as he ran.

The two of them tumbled to the ground, the Unicorn scrambled to get up from under him, and he felt something around his midsection. It was odd, cold feeling, and then he was flung backwards like a rag doll. The Unicorn growled at him, his head lowered, hoof digging into the dirt as he readied himself.

“Fuckin dirty bird pony lover!”

Rusty looked right back at him, “You need to step off, and go sleep it off. I can smell it on your breath. You’re drunk, and if you don’t go, right now, there’s going to be some shit that neither of us wants.”

“Ha! Stupid Stable Minotaur! I ain’t scared of some prissy Stable Dwelling cabana colt!”

He rushed forward, Rusty jumped out of the way, and he slammed hard into dirt instead of Rusty. He stumbled to his hooves, his eyes unfocused, blood dripping from his nostrils, and then several black shadows covered the sky. They landed and he saw the very Gryphon that had hired him and his friends as they neared the Unicorn.

“Sour Mash, you’ve been warned about this. You’ve got a choice, a week in the cell, or you can take your stuff and leave.”

“Youse let a damned bird pony in here!”

She sighed, “We’ve had this talk before. The Enclave is gone, you are a tribalist asshole, and the only reason I put up with you is because you’re able to brew some good liquor. That reason isn’t holding the light it used to Sour. I’m tired, and I have had it. This is your last chance, now, do you want the cell, or do you want to leave Junction Town?”

He groaned, “I’ll take the fuckin’ cell.”

He grumbled as he was led away by two of the other gryphons. Gawd looked at the two of them and sighed, “I’m sorry, I really am. He’s not a typical resident.”

Salty shook his head, “It’s okay. I gotta figure some folks are still a might upset about what the Enclave did.”

Gawd nodded, “Sure, but they need to get over it. Say, actually, while you’re here, before you leave, would you mind going by the school? Our resident teacher would most likely to hear a few words, and I have a feeling that most of you will get on with her like a house on fire.”

Rusty and Salty nodded, “Sure.”

“Good, thank you for understanding,” she said before she lifted into the sky.

Cream caught up to the both of them as they walked. Salty smiled, but didn’t say a word about his friend leaning against their human friend. He just was happy that she was happy. The three of them saw Twilight, hugging a yellow Pegasus with a gray and pink mane. It was obvious the two were openly crying, and curiosity got the better of them as they moved toward the pair. Twilight didn’t hear her friends, she didn’t care that they were coming toward her. She was too caught up in the moment. Her friend was alive. Fluttershy was alive, and she was so happy to see her.

She felt Fluttershy hugging her back, the reserved Pegasus mare, the former Mare of the Ministry of Peace had truly grown since they last seen each other. Memories began to form, connect, and reveal themselves to Twilight. She remembered the Megaspells, and then she remembered hearing about Fluttershy giving it to the Zebras. She nuzzled her friend as they held each other. Silently she decided that she didn’t care what happened then. That had been over two hundred years ago, and time had moved on since then.

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy whimpered, “I never meant for any of this… Twilight, I never thought that I’d get the chance to tell you, well, any of you, that I was so sorry.”

Twilight leaned back and looked at her friend. Their hug had ended, and she could just smile at her friend. One of her friends that had somehow managed to make it to this time, to live to this point. There was Lyra, and she remembered bits and pieces about their time in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, but she didn’t remember as much as she would have liked. But with Fluttershy there was so many memories opening up. She couldn’t deny that there was other ponies in her, but the main one was Twilight. She was Twilight. She hugged her friend one more time right before more of her friends showed up.

Fluttershy, the same mare that had once hid behind her mane when meeting new ponies, simply smiled at the the group.

“Hello, I’m sure that Miss. Grimfeathers welcomed you to Junction Town. I’m Fluttershy, the teacher here.”

Cream walked toward her, “F...Are you related to the Mare of the Ministry of Peace?”

Fluttershy’s smile was warm, welcoming, and incredibly sad, “I was the Mare of the Ministry of Peace. I believe that most of the Equinity behind the Ministry has long since disappeared. There are a few automated hospitals left, places that I try to keep running as a sanctuary for ponies that need a place to heal.”

Cream stepped toward her, her eyes wide with wonder, and she gently put a hoof to her, “Were… Were you in a pod like Cheese Sandwich?”

Fluttershy smiled and shook her head, her ever graying mane shaking behind her, “No. Up until just a few years ago I was a tree,” she could see the confusion, “It’s a long story, and one I don’t like to think too much about.”

She got up, “Unfortunately I’ve got several foals that need their teacher. Twilight told me that you were going to the Crystal Empire, I hope that your journey is safe, but in case you run into trouble, just look for Ministry of Peace hospitals. There should be at least three between here and the Crystal Empire.”

With that she walked off, leaving them to themselves. Twilight watched her. She would come back here, and she would spend time with Fluttershy. She absolutely would spend time with her. The group began moving toward the station, and they saw Lyra who seemed to be pony watching. As they neared her she gave them a little wave, and then turned her attention back to the crowd of ponies that was wandering around.

“Lyra, ready to go?”

She smiled, “I’m always ready. Although it is nice to be taking a train instead of hoofing it,” she said as she got up, “By the way, when we stop at Sweet Ridge, I’m not sure what we’re going to run into there, so just be ready to head out.”

The sound of a pony galloping toward them got their attention and they saw Sure Shot heading in their direction. The rust red stallion was carrying saddle bags that looked loaded down, twin holsters that seemed to have two revolvers, and a sawed off shotgun that was strapped to his side. After seeing these ponies being able to use guns he wasn’t even going to ask how Sure Shot was able to reach them. Instead the stallion slowed when he got closer, and he was grinning brightly.

“Time to go find some treasure!”

Not far behind them four gryphons landed. One of them was easily twice the size of the others. As they moved Rusty heard him speak.

“We have been assigned to watch the train, and help with the extra stop, you are the one Gawd made deal with, yes?”

Rusty nodded, “Yeah, we’re the ones.”

He looked at Rusty and then nodded, “Good, we board on top of train, take shifts watching until we get into Raider territory, once there, all four of us watch. You, watch from below, yes?”

Cream walked closer, “We did last time, we’ll do it again.”

“Good, have plan, plan makes things better,” he looked at the train, “Gawd say things get better. Train help to bring back hope. Give all a sense of connection. I think she right, be good to be able to connect places.”

Over the next twenty minutes the ponies traveling on to Manehattan, and a group of ponies and zebras that were loading up several crates, approached the train. Once everything was loaded, and everyone that was leaving was aboard, the train began to move once again. The sound of the train on the rails echoed throughout the vast empty wasteland that surrounded it. It truly was a metal beast moving through a place made of the worst possible kind of nightmares. The sound of the train was a comfort through it all. It wouldn’t be impossible for it to be stopped, but it would be incredibly difficult. Rusty looked out of the window, back toward Junction Town, and he could see it shrinking in the distance.

Part of him wondered if there would be settlements built along the tracks. If the idea of setting up trading posts would appeal to those who believed it worthy enough to settle in a harsh place in order to scrape out a living. He could remember reading books and stories of settlers back in the early days of the US. People who took it upon themselves to go to the untamed wildernesses and attempt to bring civilization out there. Of course he had to believe that those folks didn’t have to worry about scorpions the size of very large dogs, or bears, attacking them.

And the scorpions weren’t the worst problem. He hadn’t seen everything yet, but he’d heard the stories already. Cannibals, ticks the size of house cats, wasps that was easily as big as any of his companions that had acid for venom, raiders, slavers, and then there was Sweet Ridge. Gawd had given them the most basic information. He looked at Lyra, and tapped her shoulder.

“Lyra, what’s Sweet Ridge? I get that it’s a model community, but what’s so important about it?”

Lyra looked at him, and after a moment her horn glowed gold for a second. He watched as she conjured an image in her magic. There, on what looked like a ridge, was a community inside of a dome. The dome itself was clear, perfectly preserved, but inside robots like Donald seemed to be tending to the houses, and others, rather large looking ones, were at the entrances. Lyra’s magic began to dim, and then she let it fade. Rusty wasn’t sure if she needed to breathe or not, but regardless she let out a sigh of relief.

“I’ve gotten better over time, but I never was very good at astro-imagery. Lemon Hearts is, was… I’m not really sure which tense I should use. We’re both Canterlot Ghouls, but I haven’t seen her in almost two hundred years. I can’t be sure if she’s still around or not. I hope she is, but honestly I have no idea, but anyway, she’s a lot better at it than I am. She most likely could have shown you the insides of the houses if she wanted to.”

Cream studied her for a moment, “Have you been there?”

Lyra nodded, “Sure, Bon Bon and I went back before the war. She was thinking about setting up a Candy Shop there. We even paid a down payment for it.”

Rusty rubbed his chin, “But it was a model city right? Why set up a shop there?”

Lyra smiled, “Bonny thought that setting up a shop there would drum up some business from tourist ponies. Plus, since the entire city was designed to be sort of like an above ground Stable, well, if worse went to worse we could go into it as registered b… Oh my gosh! I can go into the city!”

Several ponies turned toward her, but after a few moments they went back to doing what they were doing. Lyra however was practically dancing in her seat. She swayed from side to side, nodding her head, raising her hooves to the air, “Go Bonny! Go Bonny! Go Bonny! You beautiful candy making, plot wrecking, lovable Earth Pony beauty you!”

Rusty looked at her, “Lyra, what are you going on about?”

She finally stopped, looked at him, and smiled brightly, “I sighed with Bon Bon. I’m half owner of Bon Bon’s Candies!” she giggled, “I can enter the city because I’m a registered business owner there.”

Rusty smiled, it was a plan. An actual plan, and with any luck one that they could pull off without much trouble. But then again he did notice that nothing really seemed to go according to plan too much out here. It wasn’t always a bad thing, but it did mean that they needed to be able to improvise just in case something went south. And he had a feeling that something was going to go south. Looking out over the horizon he could see the vast emptiness of the wasteland. They heard the sound of the breaks, and he felt the train slowing. Eventually it stopped, and he walked toward the front of the passenger car.

The door opened and one of the assistants to the engineer stepped inside. He looked hot, tired, but in good spirits. Slowly he looked over the group of ponies in the car, “Folks, we told all of y’all that most likely we would be making unscheduled stops. Most likely to clear, or repair the railway. Well, now it’s to repair,” he leaned against the door frame, obviously happy to have something to lean against, “What we’ve got is an old train bridge. It looks sound, but one of the tracks is missing about midway up. Shouldn’t be a hard fix, but it may take us a couple of hours. So, we need Unicorns, Earth Ponies, and of course anypony with a gun that wants to help watch over them while we get to gettin’ this done.”

Rusty got out with several of the ponies and he looked at the old bridge. Toward the middle looked to be a few old houses. From what he could tell they most likely had been long abandoned, there was no sounds coming from them, and it was just the peace and quiet of the wasteland. He watched as a few Earth Ponies unloaded a couple of lengths of track, some spikes, and a few sledge hammers. Walking with them, while holding his pistol, he looked back toward the houses. There was something off.

The houses looked fine, they didn’t look like the had been ravished by raiders, so he wondered what it was. As they drew nearer to the place where the track needed to go the first hellish howl came from one of the houses. He raised his pistol, looking in every direction, and then it broke out. The door to the makeshift house exploded as several rotting ponies began to rush toward them. His V.A.T.S. came online and he saw the percentages of hitting them, and he aimed where it seemed to indicate the most likelihood of making contact.

The first shot knocked a fore leg from a mare that couldn’t have been older than Cream Pie when she turned. She tumbled forward, snarled, and hobbled back to her hooves. He heard the sound of other gun shots following his, and he continued to use his V.A.T.S. until it had to go down for a recharge. He backed up, having to trust in his own aim, and fired again. The first two shots made contact, but did little to slow anything down. He heard the crack of more gun fire, and he looked up to see the gryphons that had traveled with them. They were attacking from the air, taking head shots, and clearing off several of these rotting ponies, these feral ghouls, further back.

He heard the sound of a gun firing from beside him and looked to see Cream. Two pistols were in her magic, and beside her Sure Shot had his shotgun out, taking care of a feral ghoul that he hadn’t seen coming from the side. It only lasted a few minutes, but Rusty could have sworn that it had lasted nearly a damned life time.

“Okay, if all of you that are protecting our sweet flanks while we repair don’t mind to sweep those houses and make sure there aren’t anymore, that would be great.”

Memories and Murals

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The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 10: Murals and Memories

Stepping into the first house rose a ton of questions, and chief among them was why wasn’t everything destroyed? The house, despite looking surprisingly like a depression era shack, looked no real worse for wear. The wood stove looked fine, the bed was dirty, but not ruined, the windows had glass with enough dirt on them to block out any light. It just looked like an old abandoned house. Rusty moved toward one of the doors, tested it, heard a sniffle. He raised his gun, looked at Cream who did the same, and pushed on the door. It opened to reveal another ghoul, but she wasn’t like the ones that attacked them. She wasn’t mindless, in truth she was closer to Lyra, although even that comparison was a little off.

The youngish mare in the small room looked up at them. She moved closer, her face uncertain, and she pushed past them. They watched as she dug under the bed, and after a moment she went to weeping. Her shoulders convulsed as she sat there, the sound wasn’t the normal sound of someone crying. This sounded wrong. It was broken, almost like glass breaking, and it was turning into a full on wail. She turned toward them, a blackish substance that Rusty could only guess were her tears rolling down her burned face. Patches of her red mane shook as she cried.

“They’re all gone!”

Her cries got worse, and Rusty slowly walked toward her, “I’m sorry.”

She looked at up, “They were my friends… All of them, but Polished Shield started acting funny. He was getting this weird look to him. He started growling at times, and it spread. I… I locked myself in that room, just listening to them out here. It seemed so long ago…”

“Who are you?”

She looked at Cream a soft smile on her face, “Butterscotch Twist. Maybe you heard of my mom? Peppermint Twist?” she grinned, “Mom made these great peppermint candies, we were selling them, and we were traveling to Manehattan. There was a convention… We got caught in the blast. Mom shielded me.”

She whimpered, “I tried to wake her up. I told her that her favorite fillyhood mistake was okay, but she wouldn’t move. She wouldn’t… That’s when I met Polished Shield. We met a few others like us, stuck out here, and we just sort of decided to stick together. I think that Doc Horse suggested that we put together the houses. But they’re all gone, aren’t they?”

Cream neared her, reached out a hoof, and touched her side, “I don’t know. Maybe, but maybe not.”

The ghoul sighed, got up, and both of them could see her cutie mark, what looked like two butterscotch stick candies twisted together. She looked at the ground, “Can I come with you? I don’t want to stay here.”

Rusty nodded, “Sure, I don’t see a reason you can’t at least come with us to another settlement. We’ll make sure that you get a spot on the train, but for now let’s go see if anyone else is still sane.”

They walked out of the shack, and together they walked toward the next one. Inside they saw a skeleton, a Unicorn, and in front of her was a pistol. Rusty took a moment to look at her and realized what happened. He walked toward the dusty bones and saw something beside her. He lifted it only to realize that it was a voice recorder. He looked at it, pressed the play button and listened.

“I was going to be famous. Most ponies hope for it, but I was destined to be famous. Celestia, my features made mares wet, stallions hard, and I knew it. Fleur might have been the fashion symbol, but me, Lacey Treasures, yeah, I was the ultimate sex symbol. Then those striped bastards had to ruin it!” the sound of sobs and a hoof striking the table could be heard, “They stole it from me! I even got an actual acting job! I was going to be the Masked Matterhorn in the Power Ponies movie!”

The sound of hoof steps and deep sighs were the only sounds besides the static for several seconds, “And now something else is happening. Polished Shield started growling, and I know what’s happening. There are several of the former guards that are acting strange. I think that it’s because of that one that was traveling behind them. She’s glowing green, and whatever it is that’s causing it… I can feel it eating away at my mind. I won’t go feral. No, Lacey Treasures is a lady, an actress, and a good pony. So, I’m going to finish this bottle of Apple Brandy, and then I shall take my exit, stage left. If anypony hears this. Know that I chose to keep my self, and know that there’s an extra bottle of Apple Brandy under my bed.”

The Voice recorder simply stopped at that, and Cream walked into the other room. She walked out with a dusty bottle of Apple Brandy.

“Wow, she had good taste.”

Shouting began to erupt from outside and the three of them ran out to see a glowing ghoul. It was howling, rushing toward the workers, and the gryphons were taking shots at it from the air. The ghoul rared back on its hind hooves and let loose another how before a ring of sickly green energy blasted out. Rusty felt it hit him and he nearly fell over as nausea struck him hard. His Pipboy was clicking like crazy and he could see that his radiation levels had rose to dangerous, nearly fatal levels. Steadying himself he activated the Enhancer. Suddenly he felt a rush of energy and power surge through him. He grabbed Widow Maker, leveled it out, and pulled the trigger, expecting to see the same result that had happened before. Instead the blast knocked the ghoul forward, causing its attention to focus on him completely. Suddenly his V.A.T.S. activated, but below it was another strange bar. He tried to ignore it until the bar quit blinking and instead of the bar there was information about the ghoul. He looked on stunned, and amazed to see that his Pipboy had actually picked up details about the ghoul itself.

‘The Glowing One. Over radiated ghoul weak against massive blunt force trauma, explosions, or rapid weapons fire. Existing Network information suggests targeting head.’

With that his V.A.T.S. showed that the head was at eighty-five percent chance of a direct hit. He held his breath, fired again, and the head exploded. When it did the body dropped and it shot out another blast of radiation. Rusty fell to the ground, despite the Enhancer doing its job he felt like he was going to pass out. A moment later he felt hands, no talons opening his mouth and forcing a tablet into it.

“Chew, yes? Want to live, yes?”

He nodded, chewed, and he felt better. Slowly he got up and he could see that they had treated cream as well. Butterscotch looked mostly unaffected, but that was fairly expected. He saw the workers being treated, so was Salty, and Lyra was helping as she could. He walked toward the body of the dead glowing ghoul, and his Pipboy began to click again. He looked at it, and something caught his attention. He reached down and pulled out a small device that looked like it could attach to the side of his Pipboy. He heard a small chirp and looked at the Pipboy itself.

‘Ministry of Morale Pipbuck recollector, for collecting those pesky memories on the go! The Pipbuck recollector is able to view all Black Opal Memory Orbs, and is also compatible with traditional Memory Orbs. If a blank Black Opal, or traditional Memory Orb is present the Recollector can record. Remember, good ponies have nothing to hide!’

He looked at the Pipboy asking if he wished to attach the device, and he selected yes. When he did his Pipboy indicated that he merely had to place the device into the external slot. Looking at the recollector he noticed how it was designed. It looked like it could clip onto the side of the Pipboy. He slid it into place and second later there was just blackness. He felt strange, like he was crawling on all fours. But this was even more strange.

He felt something flowing through him, something he couldn’t explain, and then he watched as a glass tumbler floated in front of his face. His mouth went wide as he realized that this wasn’t his body. He was inside of someone else. The pony he was inside of felt irritation at being where she was. She looked toward a pink Earth Pony that had strands of gray in her mane and tail. The Earth Pony mare smiled as she neared the pony in question.

“Ms Quill, how ya doing?”

The Unicorn mare he was inside of sighed, “Ms Pie, I’m not a Zebra sympathizer. You’ve personally checked my history a hundred times. So, why am I here today? Hmm? Some new evidence that doesn’t exist? Maybe your kept stallion heard that I’m peddling Dash, Hydra, or I know, maybe he said that I’m turning down his invitations to another stupid party. I’m a busy mare, you know one that is working toward the betterment of Equestria with the Ministry of Wartime Technology? A Ministry that’s actually doing something to keep our soldiers safe.”

Rusty saw Ms Pie’s eyes narrow, and her smile broadened, and while he had seen some twisted and frightening ponies he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen a smile that said you just fucked up bitch quite like this before. She leaned across the table, resting her forehooves on what felt like cool wood.

“Actually, I was just going to ask you how you were doing, since you’re always such a sour puss, but you know I got a much better idea.”

He felt fear creeping into the mare he was inside of. He watched as the pink mare disappeared, just disappeared, and then reappeared behind her. He felt the solid kick that sent her flying forward into the tall. She slowly stood, fear racing through her.

“You… You can’t do this!”

Something slipped onto her horn, something that cut the feeling of whatever was flowing through her, and Rusty felt the fear turn into full out terror.

“Course I can! I couldn’t prove what you were doing before, but now…”

Rusty felt the jacket the mare was wearing being ripped of, and there on her foreleg was her Pipbuck. Attached to it was the Pipbuck recollector. The Mare was trying to back up, “Please… They’ve got my brother, I had to do this! Please!”

The pink mare smiled sadly, “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure that he’s safe, but… We’ve got see everything that you’ve done,” she then blinked and grinned, “Oh Rusty, I know that you’re a watching. Thanks for helping my Cheese!”

Everything came screaming back to life and he sat up not sure what happened.

“Sweet Luna’s teats, I was afraid that you were trapped!”

He looked at Cream, “What happened?”

She pointed to the device on his Pipboy and specifically the black glossy opal in it.

“That’s a Memory Orb, sometimes they’re trapped. I was afraid that you were stuck in there. I’m glad that you weren’t,” she hugged him, “What did you see?”

He sighed, “The Pink Mare we saw plastered on the posters back at that Entertainment Plaza. She was questioning someone. The mare she was questioning had done something, she had been stealing information and giving it to someone.”

Sweets for the Sweet

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The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 11: Sweets for the Sweet

Once everyone was treated, rested, and ensured that there wasn’t too much of a mutation caused by that over radiated ghoul, the workers went back to fixing the tracks. Once more Rusty went to checking the houses, being that there was a few left, but this time two of the talons, Salty, Lyra, and Cream went with him. Butterscotch was on the train, excited to be able to have some Apple brand Apple Dandy Crisps. Rusty swallowed, the worry that another over radiated ghoul could be hiding was certainly present.

He pushed the door opened, and sitting at the table was four mummified bodies. He slowly moved forward, expecting them to come to life and attack at any moment, but an aura of golden magic nudged one of them causing the body to fall over. Seeing that they weren’t alive he checked them. Each of them was wearing a Pipboy, or Pipbuck rather, and in the center of the table was a terminal hooked to four crystals.

He moved toward it, his Pipboy beeped at him, and it indicated that it had connected with the basic terminal information. He touched a key and the terminal turned on, showing a screen of random keystrokes interrupted by a phrase every so often. He began studying it, moving from word to word, not really selecting anything, but trying to get a grasp of what he was looking at. That’s when he realized they possible passwords. Slowly he began to set into a rhythm of trying to figure out the password. He also figured out that those random keystrokes seemed to have some other applications. He happened to glide over a section only to have several of the strokes highlight. He selected it, and then it removed one of the possible passwords. He found four other hidden jewels. One of which reset his attempts, and on his fourth try he was rewarded with the terminal unlocking.

He saw one entry, and he selected it. For a moment nothing happened. No words, no voice recording, nothing, and then the crystals lit up focusing a light between one another until finally a glowing sphere formed in the air. It seemed, magical. That was really the only word for it. Magical. A voice that seemed to be composed of four voices spoke at the same time.

“The Cosmos: Countless worlds upon worlds, worlds without end. In these galaxies, every possibility exists, and what is real on one world is pure fantasy on all others. Here all is real and all is illusion. What is, what was, and what will be start here with the words, “In the beginning was hope.”

“What is that?” Cream asked.

The ball of light grew bright for a moment, and then it dulled slightly, “Daughter of the Pie Family, We are the Keepers. We are the memory of all that was good, we are the few sole survivors that sought to become more. Ours is a legacy of world that was, and the hope of the world it will become.”

“Are you okay?”

The ball of light grew bright again, for only a moment, and then it dulled once more, “Son of Atom, child of the atomic age, and second human to touch Equestria, we are touched by your worry, but nothing in this world can touch us. You have released us from our collective prison.”

“You’re welcome, I guess. You said that you are memories?”

The light pulsed for a moment, “Memories, yes, I am the collection of all the memories of the survivors that was able to connect here. I am them and they are me. All I have ever known was locked into that terminal, yet I have memories of being a father, a son, a mother, and a daughter. I have other memories as well. Memories from the archives that was stored on this terminal, but although you have freed me I am still trapped.”

“How are you trapped?” Cream asked as she neared the ball of light, “It seems to me that you could leave if you wanted to.”

A disembodied chuckle echoed through the room, “Yes, I could leave, but without a constant power source I would perish. Still, I believe we might of service to one another.”

The light spread down to the terminal and Rusty watched as dozens upon dozens of notes and scripts flooded the screen until one specific one appeared. Slowly the rest disappeared, and he looked at the journal entry.

“Celestia damn it. Cosmic finally got a job at the hydroele… the dam, and then he gets papers to report for service. Now I’ve got to take his place. I don’t know the first thing about Earth Pony technology. I’m a Unicorn for Luna’s sake! Need something levelated, sure, I can do that, but ask me how an Earth Pony put together some machine that can turn water into electricity and I’m lost! I shouldn’t have done it. I was happy as a receptionist. Sure, Mr. Vente liked to try to talk me into staying after hours and having a little fun, but it wasn’t a bad job! Instead I let Cosmic talk me into coming with him out here!

Ugh, I can’t stay mad at him. It’s not his fault. Sure, he can rut me raw, and that’s really the reason I came, but I could have said no. Oh well, I guess that I can take a look at the control room. At the very least I know that there’s a switch that will return the main power to the train bridges. Cosmic talked about how the bridges are supposed to be all lit up like the night sky. Maybe that will be all they’ll ask me. Just look for the big blue button, he said, you can’t miss it, the big blue button turns on the power to the train bridges. Now I just got to get over to the Lonesome Valley Hydrowhatits Dam.”

“You want us to go to this dam?” Cream asked as she tapped a hoof.

The ball of light pulsed again, “Yes, if the power is restored I can move freely on the existing lines. It will allow me to move.”

“If we help what’s in it for us?”

Rusty looked at Cream and nodded, “She’s got a point. I’m all for helping if I can, but I get the feeling this won’t be a walk in the park. These kind of things never are.”

The light pulsed again for a moment, “There is a safe in the control room. Once you’ve restored power I will open it for you. Everything inside of it is yours, is that fair?”

Rusty nodded, “That’s fine.”

“Please, connect your Pipbuck to the terminal and I will input the location of the Hydroelectric dam.”

Rusty moved, pulling the terminal cord from his Pipboy and plugged it into the side of the terminal. For a moment there wasn’t much and then he watched as it switched screens to the map. Roughly two miles up river was the damn. The first few minutes near the water was more than enough to make Rusty realize how unusually clear the water was. It wasn’t purified, and it wasn’t treated, but surprisingly it looked like what he expected to see water look like. It even smelled clean, which giving the vaste wasteland they had been traveling through was something in and of itself. Normally there was a sort of arid smell of death that hung around with most places. The kind of smell that let the person there understand that there wasn’t a happy ending waiting for them.

Instead walking near the water was making him feel alive. He stopped and shook his head. There was something wrong here. Sure, seeing clean water certainly helped raise his spirits, but feeling this good from just seeing clean water wasn’t normal. He looked at Cream and could see that she looked a little out of it as well. There was almost a buzzing in his head, a constant thought to walk to the water, to touch it, but he held off.

Cream moved toward the water, and nearly reached it when her muzzle crinkled. She stopped short, and backed up. She had smelled this before. It was a powerful drug the slavers had used, something that was incredibly addictive, and it was something that drew a pony toward it. She looked at the water again, and then looked up stream. There, buried in the mud of the river bed was what looked like a carriage. She moved toward it, and she could see the yellow and pink designs on the side of the carriage gave away what it had been. The carriage, at one time, had been a Ministry of Peace delivery carriage.

From behind it an oily residue blended into the water, becoming almost none present further down the stream. As she looked around she began to notice little things she hadn’t before. Hundreds of bones littered the water down stream. It was almost like ponies, and other creatures, and simply walked into the middle of the river. They walked in and drowned willingly. She looked at Rusty as he slowly made his way toward her. She understood how difficult the walk had to be for him. The absolute desire to run into the river and drink had to be gnawing at him, but somehow he kept coming until he was near her. His own head shook as he looked back down at the river.

Looking at the river he realized how close he had been to following the hundreds of skeletons that littered the bottom of the river. He brought up the map on his Pipboy and noticed that their walk had taken them more than halfway to the dam. He silently hoped that whatever had spilled into the river was the worst of what was waiting on him, but the time he had spent traveling told him that it was likely not the way it was going to work out that way.

For the most part the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. It seemed as if the river had claimed most of the would be aggressors, or at least it had claimed the ones that would have been living close enough to it to be drawn toward it. As they neared the dam he noticed an old stairwell that seemed to go about half way up before it connected with a maintenance door.

Moving toward it he could hear the metal pop and groan as both Cream and himself began to climb. Each step up the old rusty maintenance stairwell was one that Rusty wondered would be the single step that would end with him and Cream falling to their deaths. Instead he found himself face to face with a steel door that had what looked a valve handle on the side of it. He gripped it, turned, and felt it grind for a bit before it caught and the door began to unlock and then open.

Stepping into the dark hallway wasn’t what he expected. He quickly turned up the brightness of his Pipboy’s screen until he could see the walls around him. Right away he noticed the skeleton of a pony with dried blood splatter behind it. Laying beside it was a pistol, and he noticed that its two front hooves looked like they had been bound together with something.

“Wonder what happened?”

Cream looked at the long dead pony.

“Pissed somepony off, and they didn’t give a buck since the world was over.”

No sooner had the words came out of her mouth then the lights for the maintenance tunnel began to light up. The sound of metallic steps began to echo, and soon there was a mechanical device that was roughly Pony in shape. It’s head was cone shaped, there was a series of blinking blue and red lights that was flashing as it approached.

“Warning, civilians are not permitted in the maintenance tunnel. Please present your employee ID.”

“Actually we forgot our ID,” Rusty said, “Where can we get a replacement?”

The mechanical pony seemed to sit there for a moment.

“Replacement IDs are available at Ms Sweet’s Desk just outside of the control room,” it said before two slips of paper printed out, “Take these temporary passes until you are able to get your replacement badges. Remember, this is a hard hat area, please wear your safety gear.”

Rusty looked around to notice a few different color stripes that had been painted on the wall. Memories of touring Hoover Dam came back to him, and he remembered that they had something similar. Each stripe helped lead the various employees to different areas that they would need to go to for their job. He hoped that like Hoover Dam they would have a set of signs in the colors of the stripes letting them know where the control room was located.

As they walked he could hear the sound of something scraping against the wall. They stopped, hearing the sound, and noticing the door that opened in the direction of it. Rusty swallowed back the nervousness he felt, opened the door, and looked face to face with a pony in a full suit of armor. The Pony, which had red stripes painted on his/her armor also had three apples painted on the rear. There was a sigh of relief from the pony, which Rusty decided sounded feminine, and they watched as she stepped out.

“Thanks for opening the door. Knight Key Lime Tart, at your service,” she saluted the both of them, “May I have your names civilians?”

Rusty looked at her, “I’m Rusty, and this is Cream Pie, I guess it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance?”

The mare gave a nod, “It is a pleasure, I apologize, but I have a mission I have to get back to.”

Rusty looked at her, “What’s the mission?”

She turned toward them, “I’m afraid that’s classified,” she shook her head, “But it’s not like I have a team to work with. I was sent here with Scribe Rosie Poses, and Knight Brussels. Knight Brussels accidently set off a defense system which chewed through his armor…”

She sniffed and shook her head, “Scribe Poses ran upstairs toward the secretary's office. I don’t know if she made it or not.”

Cream sighed and rolled her eyes, “So what were you trying to do?”

Key Lime looked toward her, “There’s a few settlements down river that the Applejack Rangers could use as supply settlements. Having working power in those settlements would be a step in the right direction. We were to see if this hydroelectric dam was operational and catalogue all manuals, send a signal back to command and inform them of the state of the dam. If it’s in good shape we are to take command of it and there will be a command post set up here at the dam.”

Cream looked toward Rusty, “I guess that we’re helping her?”

Rusty nodded, “We have a common goal in mind. We need to get to the control room, she needs to get there, and having someone along that might know the way should help,” he said as he looked at her, “You got a temporary pass from that robot right?”

Hearing the question Key Lime felt a rush of anger pass through her. They had slipped into the dam, and began trying to bypass the security system. Naturally when it started going south was when she realized that the pony who created the security measure only gave one attempt at hacking their system. After that it put everything as hostile. But these two had simply came into the dam and spoke to one of the Protectrons and gotten a temporary pass. They bypassed the entire security system by dumb luck.

She shook her head, “I didn’t get one. We were trying to shut down the entire security for base, and instead it turned everything on.”

Cream groaned, “Of course, it can’t be too easy.”

Rusty looked at them, “What if she travels with us. We never stated what kind of employees we were supposed to be. We could say we’re security.”

Key Lime nickered angrily at that, “And I’m supposed to just follow along like a raider?”

Cream looked at her, “That or you can get to the control room on your own.”

She shook her head, and the group of them began moving out of the hall. As they walked Key Lime explained that Scribe Poses ran down the hall and turned a corner where the Pink line split off. She never got to see the map of the area like Poses did, but she knew that if he ran down this way it was because it was where the secretary's office was at. As they walked Rusty wondered if they would even need to say that they’re new security. Of course shortly after Murphy’s law revealed itself.

The robot wasn’t quite like the other one. It rolled around on three large wheels, its voice was robotic and deep, and it started firing the moment Key Lime came into view.

“Criminal trespassers will be pacified with extreme force.”

“We’re security, we captured her!”

“Present Employee ID.”

Rusty swallowed, stepped out, and walked toward the large robot. He held up the temporary ID. The robot scanned it for a moment.

“Employee ID identified, Employee 10232077, Security, input name.”

He swallowed, “Rusty.”

“Rusty has been added to Security detail, warning, this is a hard hat area, please comply.”

Rusty looked around, “Sorry, it’s up at the control room.”

The large robot turned toward the wall where Cream and Key Lime was at, “Do you need me to escort the prisoner to the holding cell?”

He shook his head, “No, we’re going to go there right after we get our new badges.”

“Destination given, Accepted, carry on, and remember your safety equipment.”

With that the large robot turned around and Rusty let out a sigh of relief. The group began to move again, and it seemed that the robots were getting word to one another that they were security. Going down the hall they found a body of a pony. She was wearing some kind of robes, half of her face had been burned off, and it appeared that her saddle bags had ripped open spilling the contents onto the floor. Rusty looked at the contents, and then he saw a map of the dam.

They’d found Scribe Poses. It didn’t take long for Cream to get the map, and the other goods, the young Scribe had been carrying into her own saddle bags. She brought the map back out, and Rusty took a look at it. They were heading in the right direction according to it. Just down the hall, take a right, and then take the elevator up to the second floor. Once there it was left, and they were at the control room.

They began following the directions, once they turned right they found the hall unpassable. Someone had long since setup some kind of barricade. Rusty looked at it, not seeing a way to get past it without much trouble. He looked around, hoping to see something, and his hopes were answered by a door. He walked toward it, noticed it was locked, and dug out his screwdriver and bobby pins. Two attempts later and the door opened to a janitor's closet. He almost groaned in annoyance, but something caught his eye. He moved toward it, and noticed that the wall had fell in on itself. Moving carefully the he moved through the hole into another room. A single monitor caught his attention.

He walked toward it, took a seat, and began to work on it. It took a few minutes, but it opened up to reveal several entries. He clicked the first one on the list.

“Just got word that Lucky’s daughter in law is a Zebra. That’s a damned shame… Lucky’s been here for nearly fifteen years. I’m pretty sure this is something they’re going to use to get rid of him. Of course they’re going to be hard pressed to find anypony else that knows the dam like Lucky. He practically trained all of us, and he’s the only one that seems to know the entire layout of the dam itself. I heard that he made an idiot proof map, but if he has it’s not here. My guess is that he’s got it on him. Good for him. Might as well make the higher ups realize how important he is.”

He clicked the next one, “Been hearing some rumors, something about how things are breaking down, and somepony said that everything is about to fall apart. It doesn’t seem likely. Glad that Lucky got to keep his job. The old stallion actually brought pictures in of his little grandfilly. Half Zebra or not she’s adorable. I mean, what kind of world would it be to have things fall about when Lucky just had a grandfilly?”

The one after was garrabled, but the next one worked fine. “Shit! It wasn’t rumors! The fuckin’ Zebras sent Megaspells! Oh Celestia… Everypony came straight for the dam. It’s built like a damn stable, so it makes sense… I saw Lucky with his son’s family. Everypony is looking at his daughter-in-law. I heard somepony whispering how she needed to pay for what her kind did.”

The next wouldn’t load, but the final one did just fine. “Zemmi, that’s what Lucky’s son called her… She’s… She’s not dead, but Celestia… I just stood there and watched as they… I’m a terrible pony. Her filly is hidden, thank Luna for that, but I can’t even begin to understand what was going on in their mind. I moved her to where her husband was put. He’s breathing, but I don’t think he’s ever going to wake up. I’m terrible for what I’m about to do. Think that I’ll finish this bottle of Sweet Apple Brandy, throw the override code, and set the security to kill everypony except for security ponies. Once its done, I’ll turn it off. Just got to remember my badge.”

Looking on the desk he saw a badge, and then he walked over toward the door. He opened it and dozens of skeletons were on the floor. The realization of what happened hit him. Slowly he moved out, and he carefully walked up until he heard movement from behind a door. Uncertain of what it was he opened the door to see a dead eyed zebra standing there. Lying on the floor near her was a skeleton. The Zebra let out a growl and jumped forward. He moved back felt himself fall, and tried to kick his leg up hoping it would cause her to fly over him.

It almost worked, she almost moved past him, but instead she stopped short. He felt the ten millimeter pistol, pulled it, and fired at the midsection of the ghoul on top of him. Kicking out he saw her turning around, black incor leaking onto the floor. He fired again, hitting a foreleg causing her to stumble and fall. He heard Key Lime and Cream come out. Both of them saw the Zebra ghoul, but neither of them knew what had happened to her. He got to his feet, watching as she tried in vain to get back onto her three remaining legs. He walked toward her, hearing her growl at him the entire time.

“I’m sorry for what happened to you and your family. Hopefully you’ll find some peace.”

He shot her in the head, and watched as her body went slack. Cream walked toward him, “What was that about?”

He shook his head, “The skeletons in this hall… I’m not sure what they did, but if I was to guess they beat and raped that mare because she was a zebra. They almost killed her husband, and I’m not sure what happened to her father-in-law. Someone in security set the security system to kill anyone that’s not a member of security.”

Cream’s eyes widened… “We could have been killed if we didn’t say we were security?!”

He nodded.

“Whatever is in that safe better be good. Better than good, it better be worth all of this!”

Once again the trio moved until they came to the elevator. From there it was just a short walk to the control room. The button the Keeper had mentioned was there, and Rusty walked toward it. He pressed it and soon the entire dam began to light up. A few moments later the same voice that had been in the shack with them spoke over the speaker system.

“Thank you, I am once again free. Here, as I promised.”

There was a clicking sound, and Rusty walked toward the wall and removed a painting. There behind it was a safe. Inside was a few maps, a strange looking gun, and four strange looking passes.

“What in the world is Sparkle Cola World?

The Vault Dweller: a Fallout Equestria Story

by Ron Jeremy Pony

Las Pegasus not Las Vegas

Traveling Song

A New Home

Sweet Dreams are Made of These

Leaving New Las Pegasus

No Planes, Maybe a Train, and No Automobiles

The Party!

The After Party

Into the Wasteland

Born to be Wild

Wasted Jewel

Memories and Murals

Sweets for the Sweet