Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
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Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
Alright, this is an idea I've had gestating for a while and in the last week, I've writing out a plan encompassing a story of 13 chapters. I've also decided to do it in a different way when I've tried to do it in the past, choosing to post a snippet every day or two. Let's see how this turns out.
Word of warning: This is a basically an anime fanboy taking the absurd of shonen and filtering it through the Old World Blues DLC. That last sentence alone should have you either intrigued or running for the hills. You've been warned.
All proofreading and feedback is appreciated.
And now, to the heavens!
Now they have to forge their way in the infamous Testing Stage.
[url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n3AzudY04g3qGOHCCzww3-_-GWIMEJiRCsy-kYz9k9Q/edit?usp=sharing]Chapter 1 - Serial GDoc[/url] / Chapter 1 - Final GDoc *
Snippet 1 (Here) / Snippet 2 / Snippet 3 / Snippet 4 / Snippet 5 / Snippet 5.5 / Snippet 6 / Snippet 7 / Snippet 8 / Snippet 9 / Snippet 10 / Snippet 11 / Snippet 12 / Snippet 13 / Snippet 14
*Serial is as the story was updated day-by-day. Final is the edited complete version of that chapter.
Chapter 2 - Serial GDoc
Snippet 1 /
Hm. Could of sworn I wrote more than that. But I'll get another snippet out tomorrow, so hopefully it'll even out over time. Hope you enjoy.
Word of warning: This is a basically an anime fanboy taking the absurd of shonen and filtering it through the Old World Blues DLC. That last sentence alone should have you either intrigued or running for the hills. You've been warned.
All proofreading and feedback is appreciated.
And now, to the heavens!
Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
Despite living in the ever expanding Stable 106, Brave has always felt constrained by it. For years he's been looking for a way out, dragging his soul brother Drillbit along on his misadventures. But when their Stable is invaded by a band of highly-equipped soldiers, they suddenly find their way into the world above.Now they have to forge their way in the infamous Testing Stage.
[url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n3AzudY04g3qGOHCCzww3-_-GWIMEJiRCsy-kYz9k9Q/edit?usp=sharing]Chapter 1 - Serial GDoc[/url] / Chapter 1 - Final GDoc *
Snippet 1 (Here) / Snippet 2 / Snippet 3 / Snippet 4 / Snippet 5 / Snippet 5.5 / Snippet 6 / Snippet 7 / Snippet 8 / Snippet 9 / Snippet 10 / Snippet 11 / Snippet 12 / Snippet 13 / Snippet 14
*Serial is as the story was updated day-by-day. Final is the edited complete version of that chapter.
Chapter 2 - Serial GDoc
Snippet 1 /
- Chapter One, Snippet One:
Digging.That was always the aim of Stable 106. Ever since the bombs fell, it had aimed to build and grow an underground life. Excavating equipment was placed into this stable so that they could always dig downwards and expand outwards. A new Equestria beneath the former’s scorched lands.Those were the words that Drillbit had heard since he was a small colt. They were the words which were said on the announcements every day. They were the words which ended every holiday and celebration. They were the words which were said to him when he was told his parents had died in a collapsing tunnel.They were words which wore everypony down until they fit into the mould that was made for them. If you stood out like a nail, it was up to the rest of the Stable to hammer you down. An indoctrination which took which took full advantage of peer pressure and looked to have everyone conform to its single-minded goal in the end.Drillbit should have long since been dragged into Stable 106’s hivemind. He was never anypony special. In fact, he should have been seen as the perfect resident of the Stable: hardworking, submissive, unwilling to stand out.Each day, Drillbit went down his tunnel with his saddle-mounted drill and expanded the Stable just that little bit more. Inching forward, bit by bit, the Stable should have made sure that he was nopony. But each day, fate intervened when he got off work. The moment Drillbit left the network of tunnels, he would be there waiting for him.“Drill!”A warmth grew in Drillbit’s chest when he heard the familiar voice.“Bro-!” he began to say, but the word was barely out of his mouth before the orange pony was ushering him along.“I found another old tunnel. And this one looks more promising then the last one. It’s lined with metal! It’s been over a century since they did that!”Drillbit couldn’t help but be intrigued by that. Brave dragged him to all sorts of dark corners of the Stable, but they had never actually found part of the original Stable before. Usually, they went looking for those tunnels that had been dug up through the bedrock, from those occasions where the Stable had required extra water. But to find the actual old halls was special. They’d been lost years ago, amidst all the tunnels that were dug before the system came in.“Metal?” Drillbit said, “Are you sure, Bro?”Brave snorted. “Of course! Do I look like a chump? Com’on, I’ll show you.”And so the two of them went, through the central mining chamber where the Mole, a gigantic excavating drill mounted on a trolley, and took one of the side tunnels up to the Mushroom Fields. Drillbit just felt relieved that they weren’t going through the town hub.
Hm. Could of sworn I wrote more than that. But I'll get another snippet out tomorrow, so hopefully it'll even out over time. Hope you enjoy.
Last edited by Veradon Chimera on Fri Jul 04, 2014 9:27 pm; edited 5 times in total (Reason for editing : Update of Chapter 1, Snippet 5)
Veradon Chimera- Colt/Filly
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
New part. Fruit of the day's labours. GDoc is updates for those that prefer it.
Again, any and all feedback is appreciate.
- Chapter 1, Snippet 2:
- The cavern that Fields were set up in was monstrous. Really, Drillbit didn’t feel comfortable with the ceiling so high. It just went up and up for about a hundred feet, leaving all that empty space between them and the ceiling. And that wasn’t even getting into the ground space that the Field. But Brave seemed unfazed, only seeming aware of what had what was at the end.He’d always been like that, ever since Drillbit had known him. He had been the first to speak anything true to him after his parents had died. A buck, about three years older than him, walked up and began speaking to him. At first, he thought the buck was just another wellwisher, ‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ words which were expected but not really meant. But when he opened his mouth, he didn’t say this. His words instead sounded blasphemous, dangerous, but all the same an alternative for a place that never changed. Words which in an instant made him take notice of the buck: “Yeah, this place sucks. Let’s find a way out.”As they alongside the rows and rows of mushrooms towards the far end, the farmers tending barely took any notice of them. There was only one exception to this, a single one mare, about Brave’s age, who looked up from her work as the two approached.“Hey, Brave!” she shouted, “Found the hole you’re going to disappear through yet?” The ridicule in her voice was clear, but whether he noticed it or not, Brave’s response was only enthusiastic.“Nearly there,” he replied, “Won’t be long before I’m living in sunshine!” He didn’t bother to acknowledge the look of disgust she shot them. Drillbit however tried to hide behind this buck that didn’t care how others saw him.After that however, the rest of the journey brought no trouble. They reached a dark corner where the ceiling sloped back down to ten feet, a height Drillbit was comfortable with. But for all intents and purposes, it just seemed to be a dark little corner of the Stable. No metal, no marks, just a dead end.“Is this it, Bro?” Drillbit asked, “I don’t see any metal around here“Just watch,” Brave reassured, “Your eyes are going to pop out of your head when you see this.”He trotted over to a vertical outcrop in the stonework. To his credit, when Brave stepped into the wall and disappeared, Drillbit’s eyes nearly did pop out.“Bro?” Drillbit called tentatively. He was relieved when a voice answered back.“Over here!” came Brave’s voice within the stone.Drillbit trotted around to the side of the outcrop and found himself staring at a thin crevice from which Brave’s face grinned out at him.“What do you think, huh?” he asked, “Hundreds of ponies walk the Fields every day, how many do you think realise this is here?”Drillbit just continued to stare out at him. “But- Whu-! H-How’d you find it?”“Pissed off some of the farmers and I found this place while they were being too slow to catch me,” he said with a chuckle. “Com’on. The place I found is through here.”He backed up through the jagged tunnel, his grin practically beckoning the younger pony to follow. At a glance, Drillbit could tell the tunnel hadn’t been dug; the walls were too rough to have been carved by a drill, at lacked the familiar groove that the bit etched into the stone.But his bro was disappearing into the darkness. Tentatively, he stepped in after him. Very quickly, he was plunged into darkness and only had the sound of Brave ahead talking up his discover to follow.“I tell you, Drill, you haven’t seen anything like this place before. And that’s only the start! Soon we’ll be out of here and there’ll be a whole world for us to explore!”Turning what felt like a corner, Drill at last saw light. Brave was still in the way, but the glow of electric light was unmistakable. Pressing ahead faster now, he stepped out from the thin crevice.
Again, any and all feedback is appreciate.
Veradon Chimera- Colt/Filly
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
To anyone who this concerns: apologies, no snippet today. Was out all day and wasn't in a state of mind to write when I got home. I've a free morning tomorrow, so I'll have something to post tomorrow night.
Hopefully I'll keep these no productively days to a minimum, as that would entirely defeat the point of this day-by-day snippet posting schedule.
Hopefully I'll keep these no productively days to a minimum, as that would entirely defeat the point of this day-by-day snippet posting schedule.
Veradon Chimera- Colt/Filly
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Join date : 2014-03-31
Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
New snippet. GDoc updated.
- Chapter 1, Snippet 3:
- The place he stepped into was the polar opposite of the tunnel behind him. Whereas it had been much rougher than the tunnels he frequented, his one was cleaner than any drill could make. For starters, it was square-shaped; it was simple to identify the walls from the ceiling by the right-angles they at. And they were all smooth too, no uneven surfaces or jagged edges. Drill had to wonder how you could move without sliding all over the place.“Cool, huh?” Brave said.“I-It... It’s amazing!” Drill gawped for a minute before he finally caught himself. He put forward a tentative hoof to see, no, he didn’t slip along uncontrollably.“And that’s not even the best part. What ‘til you see this!” Brave took off at a brisk trot. Drillbit trotted right behind him, following him through the corridors. They kicked up layers of dust as they walked, hinting at a long period without pony presence, but despite this very few halls were actually pitch black. It seemed that the emergency generators had continued to do their work throughout the decades.Eventually, they reached a door which Brave pushed open and lead Drillbit through it. Inside was a room, decently sized, but not much to it. Just a few railings, a sloped floor leading down to...Drillbit caught his breath as he eyed the back wall. The image of the gear shape lining up with the endless stories Brave has told him over the years. That image had been a symbol to him for years, one of freedom and hope. And now he was staring at it! For real!“So what do you think?” Brave asked. “Told you you haven’t seen anything like this before!”Drillbit couldn’t say anything, he just stared in awe. When the feeling finally did give way, it did so for dread.“We can’t be here!” Drillbit said, panicking slightly as he stepped back from the Stable door, “If the Overmare catches us here, we’ll be goners! She’ll, She’ll-!”“Relax, nopony knows we’re here,” Brave replied, stepping towards, “And so what if they do? What’ll happen? They’ll give out shit to us for going somewhere without telling anypony, and after that, nothing!”Drillbit bit his lip, but didn’t backpedal any farther. But neither could he find the conviction that would allow him to approach the Stable door, so he was stuck in a limbo grounded in his indecision. Not for the first time, he wished he could be more like his big bro, unafraid of what was to come.While Drillbit had been fretting over this, Brave had walked right up to the Stable door and put his ear to it.“Hey, Drill. Come over here for a minute and listen to this.”This broke the spell of indecision over him. With Brave’s words and a slight push of effort, Drillbit trotted up beside the older stallion and put his ear to door and closed his eyes. At first, he wasn’t sure what he was listening for. But slowly he did make out a sound, a constant whine from the metal. A sound which was only just making its way through the door. What the hell was on the other side?“Hear that?” Brave’s voice cut through the whine. Drillbit nodded in reply. “Well,” Brave continued, “That’s the sky. And it’s calling for us, bro.”The sky, Drillbit thought, Could the sky really be that loud through the Stable door? If it could be heard here, how loud was it outside.“And one day, we’ll be under the real sky, Drill. No more Stables for us.”And which that they stepped away from the door, leaving the sky just out of reach beyond the Stable door.
Veradon Chimera- Colt/Filly
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
Today's new snippet. GDoc updated.
- Chapter 1, Snippet 4:
- (XXXXXX)“You think it can be gotten open?”Walking back towards the crevice that had lead them in here, it was inevitable that this was going to come up. Brave never liked dancing around these questions, so Drillbit was not surprised when he was suddenly faced with it.“Well,” Drillbit said, before trailing off. He cast a long gaze down the hall as he thought about it. What he didn’t want to say was that he didn’t know. All sorts of things could have happened over the years; the door could have rusted shut, the opening mechanism could have broken, the opening codes could have been lost or destroyed.But the intentness on Brave’s face, Drillbit just couldn’t bring himself to dash that venue completely.“Maybe, if we can get the codes,” Drillbit said, shrugging, “I don’t think either of us know enough about computers to try and hack it. So, the codes might be the only way.”Brave stared off thoughtfully for a moment. For a moment, Drillbit thought it was over, until Brave suddenly turned back. “Well, what about your drills?”“Huh?”“Your drills! They’d open that lump of metal up, no problem!”With that suggestion, two conflicting feelings slugged Drillbit in the gut and fought there. The first was that, yeah, his drills could go through that door. Sure it would take a few days, maybe even weeks, but there was no doubt that he could get through it eventually.But then there was the other sensation, the one that always held him back. The one that threw up all those other stories, the ones that Brave had told him, about the outside. The ones that said that the world had become a poison field, after the zebras dropped bombs on Equestria. They all boiled down to that, there was a war and the zebras dropped bombs in the day the Stable door closed. And as much as he wanted to believe his Bro, that version was still just as real to him.“Uh, maybe,” Drillbit said, trying not to sound as unsure as he felt, “We can always try.”“Yeah, we can try,” Brave repeated, “And this time we’ll get out. Your drills are going to bring us that sky, Drill, just you wait!”Again, two feeling rose up in Drillbit, warmth from the pride and guilt pressing down on it.Brave stopped him with a hoof and cocked an ear. Drillbit cocked his ear too and immediately hear it: hoofsteps. There was somepony down there with them.“Come on,” Brave said, urging his little bro forward, “We’ll go this way! Whoever it is, they won’t catch us!”Then, Brave took off at speed. It was so sudden, that for a moment Drillbit didn’t knew what was happening and by the time he was running, he was several lengths behind the older stallion. Through several halls he chased him on shorter legs, just keeping pace but was quickly tiring.At last, Brave turned a corner. Drillbit hear the thud before he saw it and slowly as he turned the corner. What he saw was his worst nightmare come true.Lying on the ground, clutching his stomach and rubbing his head, was Brave. In front of him like a brick wall was a pony wearing full armour, including a visored helmet. Mounted on his saddle was a combat shotgun, which was currently aimed at Brave. Emblazoned across the front of the armour was a single word: SECURITY.He wasn’t the only one there; behind stood at least three other security ponies, all of them surrounding...“I should have known it would be you two,” the Overmare said, sighing heavily.
Veradon Chimera- Colt/Filly
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
Here it is. Sorry that there was no snippet yesterday, just couldn't find the drive. Might try for a double length update tomorrow to make up for it. GDoc updated for those that prefer.
- Chapter 1, Snippet 5:
- Drillbit’s heart sank as that voice hit him. She’d caught them. She’d finally caught them. Before, they’d had always just managed to slip through her net, leaving her with only strong suspicions, but no actual proof. And now they were standing at the wrong end of the Overmare and several security ponies, red hoofed.Drillbit was between freezing up and kneeing on the ground grovelling for forgiveness, and would have fallen completely into the later had Brave not spoken up first.“Ah, Overmare. Fancy seeing you up here,” he said, standing up and putting on a rakish smile. Drillbit swung right back and froze up. What the hell was Brave trying to do? Antagonise her?!At Brave’s casual tone, the Overmare’s brow furrowed deeper.“Alright Brave, I’m only going to ask this once,” she said, her voice brokering no leeway, “How did you get in?”Brave smiled knowingly. “Through the front door.”At this, the Overmare seemed taken aback for a moment, before recovering herself and scowling even deeper. “Impossible. That would have required going through the Council storage facility, which requires one of the Council members to each. Then, to open the second into the Stable’s foyer, you need the passwords from two of us. Are you meaning to say that two Council members came with you?”Brave shrugged at this. “Never said that. But obviously we have two very different ideas as to what the front door is.”Again, the Overmare had to double-take on this, worsening her mood. Drillbit was too afraid to open his mouth or even signify he was there by now, too afraid of what would happen. But Brave just stood there smirking at the mare and her posse. And it was clearly grating on her nerves.“Enough of this,” she snapped, “You’ve been doing this for years and I know it! Poking around the old water table tunnels, until you wound up here!” She marched up to Brave, breaking the safety of her guard so that she was face to face with him. “You want to open up the Stable. You want to ruins all our efforts and open that door to the darkness outside, just because of some false dream that you seem intent on.”As she spoke, the Overmare got uncomfortably close to the stallion, getting so close that she could have bit him on the muzzle. To his credit, Brave didn’t falter away, and this only made his response all the more impressive.“Wrong again, as usual. I could care less if you stay here and waste away, but I’m getting out of here, one way or another. Slam the door on my butt if you want as I walk out.”Without warning, the Overmare headbutted Brave. This time, he stumbled back a pace. The whole hall fell silent in the wake of this. Drillbit just continued to stare, while the guards seemed unsure what to do.The Overmare, meanwhile, composed herself and spoke to Brave with the most venomous tone she had.“Mum might have tolerated your shit, but I certainly won’t.” She turned to the lead guard. “Chief Shield, escort Brave to the cells.”The chief of security nodded and turned to Brave.“Oh, you want to tussle?” Brave asked, falling into a fighting stance. Against three trained security guards however, he was never going to last long and was being pressed along in hoofcuffs within minutes.It was only when all this was said and done, that the Overmare turned to Drillbit. He shrank back when he realised the Overmare’s attention was on him, expecting the same rage to be directed at him. She first surprised Drillbit, however, when instead of anger, she just looked disappointed.“You’re a good kid, Drillbit,” she said, “You work, you’re quiet, you don’t make a fuss. What is it that makes you hang out with my brother? You don’t deserve to go down with him.”Drillbit’s ears pinned back against his head. She was right, though not for the reasons she thought. What was he doing here? He wasn’t Brave, treading on the rules without a care. He looked up to him, respected him. If he didn’t deserve to fall with him, then neither did he deserve to rise with him either. He just held him back.Unaware of the conflict in him, the Overmare took his silence as acceptant. Turning to the last guard, she ordered him to escort the colt back to the common chambers.
Veradon Chimera- Colt/Filly
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
New snippet, and am delving into the strange freedom of third person story-telling. Straying from Drillbit's viewpoint in this one. GDoc updated.
I may not get an update up tomorrow, due to the fact that I'll be at a friend's house and he doesn't have internet. I'll still write tomorrow though, so expect some compensation on Sunday.
- Chapter 1, Snippet 6:
- (XXXXXX)THUNG!The ball bounced back from the cell wall and as it returned, Brave struck it and sent it on the worn path back.Stupid Valour, just because she was happy here didn’t mean everypony was. If she could stay here in the finite walls of 106, then that was her business. But he was not her, and he would never be content to live and die in this hole in the ground.The ball bounced back and he returned it.Even those supposed lost tunnels were becoming fewer and fewer as he and Drillbit stumbled across them. Eventually, they’d be gone too and he’d be forced to walk the same tunnels everyday. And that nightmare was going to drive him insane!Bounce. Return. As the ball left his hoof, he thought he felt a tremor.But outside that gear-shaped door, lost for nearly two hundred years, was another world. A whole planet that would have him asking ‘what’s just over that horizon?’ A place where he would be allowed to press just that little bit farther.Backhoof, ten points!They were gone; him and Drillbit. The Overmare and her entourage may have caught them this time, but they still had access to the door. Valour had no way of stopping them now.Just as the ball back again, there was another, larger rumble shook that room. Swing and a miss, the ball bounced off his stomach and into the hole that the entire centre of the room was collapsed in. Now despite priding himself on being able to roll with the punches, Brave had no idea what to make of it.“Hey, Bro!”A huge grin spread across Brave when he saw Drillbit’s little blue head appeared at the bottom and suddenly realised what this was. A rescue attempt!“Finally got here, huh,” Brave said. Then with a carefree jump, he slid down the incline to the bottom beside Drillbit. “Well you’re just in time! I was starting to get bored in there!”Drillbit just gave him a small smile and turned to head back along the tunnel he dug. It was then that Brave stopped and thought about the situation. Why... had Drill come? It wasn’t like there was he had been in any danger; he would have been kept in for a couple and then released. Drill had nothing to gain from this prison break, except the wrath of the Overmare. In conclusion, Brave felt guilty. It was one thing dragging him up and down the Stable to explore, another to have him make enemies on his account.“Hey,” he said. Drill paused at the calmer tone of his companion and turned back. Brave gave him a smile. Not a grin or smirk, though it did border on both of those. “Thanks for coming for me.”Drill stood there for a moment, taking it in, before he smiled back. “No problem,” he said. Then his expression faltered into a sheepish look. “Though, I’m... not sure where we’re supposed to go from here.”Brave chuckled at this. “That’s an easy one. Upwards and onwards! That sky’s the limit!”(XXXXXX)For just short of two hundred years, the door of Stable 106 had stood sentinel between its occupants and the end of the world. Megaspells, raiders, beasts and bandit all tested it and all eventually gave up or subsided. Against this door, force was not an option. However for those that knew how to say please in just the right way, it would freely open. All anypony had to do was go up to the terminal and say the magic words.That day, somepony said those words. And for the first time in over two hundred years, the Stable door opened up and a pony stepped through its threshold.It was just coincidence that there’d already been a scare that day. Had it not been the case, things might have been different. The Stable may have reacted faster, come prepared to fight.But if that happened, that would be telling a completely different story.(XXXXXX)Beep beep. Beep beep.Valour groaned as she heard her alarm crying at her to get up. She worked so hard everyday as Overmare, not only to keep the Stable ticking over, but to keep also keeping up morale. So for once could she just sleep for a bit?Beep beep. Beep beep.Strange, Valour thought, Does my alarm usually sound like that?Beep beep. Beep beep.Valour’s eye shot open as she realised two things in quick succession. One, that wasn’t her alarm, it was incoming transmission on her Pipbuck. And two, it was half-one in the morning. She’d barely been in bed an hour!“Hello?” she mumbled down the line, “What is it?”“Uh, ma’am.” It was Blue Shield, her chief of security. “Two things. The silent alarm was tripped upstairs again. That, and your brother has appeared to have escaped his cell.”Valour groaned and fell back into her pillow.“Ma’am.”“Just send a couple of guards to pick him up.” She really didn’t need this.“Well... ma’am, it’s just... both alarms went off almost at the same time. I think you should see this.”“...Fine. I’ll be down in five. And you’d better hope it’s important.”She hung up and rolled herself out of her bed, greeting the night air. She really didn’t need this.
I may not get an update up tomorrow, due to the fact that I'll be at a friend's house and he doesn't have internet. I'll still write tomorrow though, so expect some compensation on Sunday.
Veradon Chimera- Colt/Filly
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
Right. Apologises for the long wait. Between card games and the pub, the weekend was not kind to writing. Monday was lack of muses/me being lazy, depending on how forgiving you are. But here's the next snippet. Schedule should be normal the next few days. GDoc updated.
Now, I may or may not have put conflicts to the previous snippet in here (the first part of this snippet went through several drafts, so I forget), but once the first chapter is complete, I'll be touching the whole thing up in general. So if you are worried, no need.
- Chapter 1, Snippet 7:
- (XXXXXX)
Five minutes was optimistic. She arrived fifteen minutes later to the back end of the Council warehouse to an eclectically larger number of ponies then there normally should have been. Besides the two guards that were supposed to be there, another heavy-eyed one standing at a loose end, as well as Blue Shield and the head technician, Ratchet Backlash, were on the scene. Behind them was the backdrop of the open bulkhead which led into the foyer.
And now there was her. A grand midnight meting this was turning out to be.
“Alright, I’m here. Any updates?” She then paused before turning to the technician. “What are you doing here, Ratchet?”
The grease-strained unicorn shrugged. “Late night troubleshooting one of the air purifiers,” he explained, “Was just heading home when Blue here fucking waylaid me.”
“I told you, I needed you,” Blue said, cutting in, “Alarm went off in the foyer again.”
“And it’s just Brave again,” Ratchet quipped, “Whatever way he got in before, he got in again. Trust me, I’ve looked at that door and he’s not going anywhere. He can bang that thick skull on it all he wants.”
Blue grunted. “Still doesn’t mean we can just leave him there.”
“No, but you pick him up in the morning. There’d be no difference except to our sleep schedules.”
Valour pressed down on the urge to tell them both to shut up. Tiredness was fraying out all of them and it wouldn’t help for her to just add fuel the sparking situation.
“Just tell me what’s happened so far,” she said. The two Council members stopped, finally remembering they were in the presence of their superior. Blue even adjusted his uniform before addressing her.
“Ahem, Mr Backlash and I opened the foyer bulkhead approximately twenty minutes ago and I sent in two security guards to go investigate and apprehend anyone down there. They’re...” He paused for a moment to check his Pipbuck. “In there eighteen minutes now. Then approximately fifteen minutes ago, I was informed that your Brave had managed to break out at the same time as the foyer alarm went off. Any of these incidents alone I would have dismissed in light of what happened today, but the fact that they’re synchronized seems to imply coordination on your brother’s part.”
Valour nodded, but restrained a groan. It was one thing dealing with Brave normally, but if he was going to start planning his moves, start becoming a significant threat to the Stable, she would lose her say in what happened to him. And... she didn’t want that. Despite everything, he was still her little brother.
“I’d hardly call Drillbit wandering around the foyer at the same time as my brother’s breakout organised,” she said. Blue’s face went very serious at this remark.
“That’s the problem,” he replied, “The tunnel under his cell suggests that Drillbit helped Brave escape, which means that there’s a third party in there.” He nodded to the foyer at this last bit.
Valour felt herself paled as he said this. Control of the situation was slipping from her. “So... What do we do now?”
“We catch the perpetrators, find out how they planned to open the Stable door and then deal with them appropriately,” he answered, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. “Because, Celestia knows what would ever happen if the door to our Stable ever opened-!”
The clunk stopped them all in their tracks. It was quiet at first, echoing only just loud enough that all of them could hear it. But it kept going, rhythmic, like... footsteps. And little by little, it grew louder too. Everypony present, the guards included, turned to look down the hall to the foyer. Not one of them dared make a sound. The just watched as it came into calm into view.
Valour’s heart nearly stopped in her chest as she laid her eyes upon the creature. The details she took seemed to be arbitrary; pony-shaped, entirely made of metal, but with no pony features like eyes or a mouth. It was completely alien; she’d never seen anything like in before. And that was what scared her the most. Because this thing’s presence only meant one thing.
Stable 106’s door had been breached.(XXXXXX)
Sunlight had always been vaguely aware that Stable 106 was in the Stable-Tec area of the Testing Stage, but up until now she’d never had reason to pay attention to it. For centuries the place had been for all intents and purposes a dead end. You sometimes heard the stray tale of someone chancing their luck there, but they always came back empty hooved. Going to 106 was a fool’s errand.
Which made the fact that 106’s door was wide open unnerving.
“Well there’s an ominous sign if I ever saw one. Eh, Shuko?”
“Hoo?” The owl perched on her back gave the scene a cursory glance before turning to back to observing something in the mare’s saddlebags.
“Oh, be that way if you want. But this is big! Stable 106 has never opened before,” she answered the bird. “And whatever those ancient bastards want in there, it can’t be good.”
For nearly a day, she’d been following the treads through the scrubland, curious as to where they were going. Well, more than curious; the Student Council would want to know about anything that the Veteran’s were engaging in, especially on their own soil. The fact that the treads lead straight through the open front door told her they weren’t there for a social visit.
Trotting up to the door, she glanced to the anti-material rifle, Bullet Wallace, mounted on her saddle and kicked the loading mechanism. The gun loaded without a problem, but as she did, Shuko took off and flew up to perch on top of the Stable door. Sunlight, didn’t bat an eyelid at this; Shuko hated being around the rifle when it fired.
“Alright, you watch my back. Make sure nopony sneaks up behind me.
“Hoo,” replied the owl, giving her a lazy salute. Then, turning to the darkness of the Stable, she trotted inside.(XXXXXX)
Drillbit only realises what he’d done while Brave wolfed down the meal he’d grabbed for him.
He’d crossed the Overmare. He’d actively defied her. More than just the roaming where he shouldn’t be, he’d broken into the cellblock and freed a prisoner that had been put there on her order. Why had he done it? Brave would only have been in there a couple of days. And yet, the moment he’d put some distance between him and the Overmare, he’d begun digging a tunnel to free his friend. He hadn’t thought, he hadn’t thought and had acted on gut instinct, a voice which said ‘the Overmare’s wrong to do this’ and now she’d would be after them.
Shifting a little, he suddenly felt the little weight against his chest, tucked neatly under his mining uniform and gasped as he realised it was there. Pulling out the little pendant, he clasped it in his hooves, where it gave him a modicum of comfort. He pressed his hooves against it so he felt the shape of its bulk. A shape he’d long come to know when he was distressed; small, oval, with a hinge and a latch that had broken generations before. He could only guess that inside was ancestor of his.
But its importance wasn’t due to that. Its importance came from the fact that it was the last gift his mother ever gave him.
A loud, satisfied gasp signalled Brave was done. “Now that was good. Needed that!” He hoped to his hooves and looked eager to be on the move, “Now I can think think clearly as to what we’re doing next.” Drillbit, on the other hoof, was obviously less enthusiastic. Replacing his locket, he turned to the other buck.
“Um... bro? Actually, I was thinking...” He shifted uncomfortably as Brave’s unfading enthusiasm. “There’s nowhere we can really go... So, maybe we should just hand ourselves in to the Overmare. She’s going to catch us eventually.”
Drillbit had expected a lot of responses; anger, betrayal. What he didn’t expect was honest confusion. “Now how are we going to get anywhere if we’re mired down in the mud in front of the Overmare?”
Before Drillbit could even begin to process this remark however, a noise, alien and loud, cut through the air. In an instant, all previous train of thought was abandoned. For even to those who always for something beyond the Stable walls, they were just as sheltered from the alien as the rest of the Stable.
“W-What was that?” Drillbit asked.
“Don’t know,” Brave replied. Then, he turned to the door of the shed and trotted up to it. Drillbit panicked when he say this.
“Wait! W-Where are you going?” he asked. Brave looked before he went out.
“Well to find out, of course,” he said with a grin, “You coming?”(XXXXXX)
Now, I may or may not have put conflicts to the previous snippet in here (the first part of this snippet went through several drafts, so I forget), but once the first chapter is complete, I'll be touching the whole thing up in general. So if you are worried, no need.
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
Right, uh. Sorry about the lack of an update yesterday, I'll explain it below. GDoc updated, as usual.
Alright, sorry that there was no update yesterday, but I hit a stumbling block. You have no idea how hard it was stopping Brave from just sprinting off into that fight. Trying to get him to react right to Drillbit and keep him to my plan was a task. I still don't think I pulled it off and I'm wondering should I have let him loose. And the the end of it does not know what it's doing either with the comparison of Brave and Valour. I'm telling you, this segment is getting particular attention when I'm touching the chapter up at the end. Again, apologies for it and hopefully tomorrow will be better.
- Chapter 1, Snippet 8:
- (XXXXXX)
Drillbit had never seen a gunfight. Neither had Brave for that matter. So the common sense of keeping their heads down didn’t occur as they watched the battle happening in front of them. However, what saved them was not only that they were viewing the battle from the side on, but also that they were standing atop a mild incline, putting them above the fighting.
Watching it was odd looking to say the least. When the ultimate authority was the Overmare and the security guards, to see them rapidly retreating from anything was just surreal. What made it even more bizarre however was the fact that Drillbit couldn’t make head or tail of what they were running from. As far as he could tell, they were five metal ponies, all marching out of the Council’s warehouse.
But that just raised more questions. Where did they come from? What were they? Robots? Or was Security staging a coup?
“Bro, what’s happening,” Drillbit asked, not taking his eyes from the scene in front of him.
“Don’t know,” Brave answered, “Looks like the Overmare turned on something she shouldn’t have. Who knows what they keep in that warehouse of theirs, ‘cause I don’t.”
Then they just stood there and watched. Security just ran, firing back on their pursuers with the small arms they had on hoof while trying to get to various bits of cover and being pinned. The metal ponies advanced heedless of the gunfire being directed at them, the bullets just bouncing their metal hides. Then they fired with then mounted automatic cannon-like guns, way more powerful than anything Security had.
“They really are in trouble, aren’t they?” Brave said.
“They are...” Drillbit agreed. He watched as a cannon bit a huge out of a crate, startling the guard hiding behind it. He noted that no one was dead yet and wondered was this just practice. Preparation for an invasion? But even so, it didn’t make any sense. Why at night? Why wasn’t there an announcement? Surely, this was going to cause a panic if nopony knew. Already he could see lights coming on in the residential section.
So caught in trying to figure out just what it was he was actually witnessing, that he almost didn’t see Brave begin his walk down the slope until it was too late. At the last second he noticed, leaping out a catching a mouthful of Brave’s orange tail in his teeth.
“Rhait, Brave!” he said through the mouthful of hair, “Rhere’re you going?!”
“To save them.” He said as if he were only stating he was going to the shop.
“But they have guns and- and bullets aren’t doing anything.” Despite how he thought that was just a show, there was a piece of him screaming that it wasn’t. It was this piece which took over and vocalised these concerns to Brave. But it was enough to give the other pause.
“Hm...” He turned and looked at the metal ponies as if he was only considering that obstacle for the first time. Which, in fairness, he probably was. “That is a problem.”
That was it. He’d stalled Brave from presently throwing himself into an impossible situation, but it wasn’t enough. He needed something else, something to distract him before he forgot why he stopped and jumped right back on that train.
He found just that out of the corner of his eye. A figure, much lither, much more subtle than the metal ponies was slipping through the Warehouse’s entrance. “Look! There’s one trying to sneak away back there,” he said, pointing to the figure, “Security can deal with the others, but they haven’t noticed that one yet!” He turned to head down towards the shadowy figure. “We should... do something.”
“You can’t run from this forever, Drill.”
Drillbit stopped in his tracks. He looked back to see Brave, still looking down at the struggling security while the Overmare screamed motivation at them all. And looking at her down there was weird; she looked exactly like Brave anytime he faced off against her. No gun, no weapon at all, she just stood there with a glare for her opponents and a flame for her allies to rally around.
Brave turned away and trotted past Drillbit and towards the warehouse. “But, yeah, we’ll deal with your thing first. That’s important now. But once that’s done, we’re coming back for them. Just because we can!”
Alright, sorry that there was no update yesterday, but I hit a stumbling block. You have no idea how hard it was stopping Brave from just sprinting off into that fight. Trying to get him to react right to Drillbit and keep him to my plan was a task. I still don't think I pulled it off and I'm wondering should I have let him loose. And the the end of it does not know what it's doing either with the comparison of Brave and Valour. I'm telling you, this segment is getting particular attention when I'm touching the chapter up at the end. Again, apologies for it and hopefully tomorrow will be better.
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
New snippet. We're now getting into the meat of the chapter. About 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through Chpter 1 now. GDoc updated.
- Chapter 1, Snippet 9:
He walked ahead of Drillbit, who just stood there staring bewildered. How did he have so much confidence? Before he could get into that question however, he shelved it as Brave was getting quite far away.
Catching up to the buck, it wasn’t long before Drillbit realised that Brave was speeding up too. Walk, trot, canter, until they were galloping down the slope towards the figure. Drillbit was having trouble keeping up on his shorter legs, but thankfully it wasn’t far. By the time they were ready to give out, the two of them were practically on the figure.
“Hey!”
The figure jumped at Brave’s shout and turned to look at them. Both Brave and Drillbit skidded to a halt when they saw just what it was. An earth pony mare; colourful and pretty. A battlesaddle and some saddlebags partially obscured her pale yellow coat. And what Drillbit had initial thought to have been a red scarf was in fact her mane! There was volumes of it cascading down her head to her hooves. But these weren’t the aspects which caught their attention. No, what struck them the most was that in a community like that of a Stable, that was no migration of ponies, except for the obvious birth or death. So it was inevitable that you would become aware of everypony in there, if not by name then at least by look. But this mare, despite her striking looks, they didn’t recognise at all.
It wasn’t often that Brave was speechless, which allowed the mare the opening remark.
“You locals?”
Brave’s eyes scrunched up as he scrutinised her. “You don’t live here.”
The mare rolled her own eyes at that. “No, but neither do I want to see it destroyed,” he replied, looking back towards the warehouse as she said this. “Look, I need you to get your security out here now. With the biggest weapons you have, as well. You’re about to get trouble.”
This went some way to breaking Brave and Drillbit from their stupor. They looked at each other and back to the sound of gunfire.
“Uh, not sure if you can see, lady, but that boat sailed,” Brave said, turning back to the mare, “Those metal ponies have been trashing Security for a while now.”
Despite her already light coat, the mare paled anyway. “Wait, you mean they have power armour?”
“Armour?” Brave repeated, looking back, “You’re telling me there’re ponies in those things.”
The mare didn’t respond to this remark, but stopped to think the situation over. It was only then, when the shock that he didn’t know had passed, that Drillbit began wondering who she was. The two things which struck him, however, were that she had some idea of what they were dealing with and that she was extraordinarily armed. The gun mounted at her side was easily the biggest he’d ever seen.
Before he could examine her any further however, she brought to them once more. “Quick, where’s your armoury?”
“Same place as the Security offices. That way.” Brave pointed beyond the firefight to the residential district.
The mare was already heading there by the time he lowered his hoof. “Alright, we need to get guns. Then we can deal with the power-armoured one first.”
“Wait!” Brave called, stopping the mare in her tracks.
“What?” she asked, “Can this wait?”
“Yeah, yeah. Just one question; you’re from the outside, right?”
The incredulous look she gave him only lasted a moment before answering. “Yeah.”
“Which mean the door is open, Drillbit, the Stable door is open!” With a laugh, he scooped up the little pony and swung him around. This was it! The outside! It was so close now.
Drillbit, on the other hooves, was feeling conflicted about the revelation. Surely, the reality couldn’t live up to the dream, could it?
“Finally, Drill! The sky almost in our reach!” Brave said as he put Drill down.
“What? No!” the mare said, “Your field tip can wait, we have to stop the Veterans now!”
Drill thought shuddered to a halt as his attention was drawn to the mare again. He began reasoning that if somepony as pretty as the mare in front of them came from the outside, it couldn’t be all bad.
A rumble hummed through the area. It began low at first, still audible above the gunshots abroad, but grew gradually louder and louder. The mare stopped when she felt them and Brave and Drillbit stopped too.
Brave turned to the mare. “What the hell’s that?”
His question was answered by the screech of metal coming from the Council warehouse. They all turned to see the entrance frame to the warehouse bulging, straining with intense pressure from something on the other side. All three were struck silent once more, only able to watch as brick and mortar buckled and then broke, giving birth to something far worse than even five power-armoured soldiers.
A Zebra Empire heavy tank.
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
Sorry for the two day silence. It was a mixture of 'laziness' and 'out with mates' so things took their time getting written. But I've a bit of the next section written, so hopefully, unless disaster strikes my muse, there'll be one tomorrow.
- Chapter 1, Snippet 10:
Digger stumbled back before falling onto his haunches. This was the straw to break the camel’s back. After metal-armoured ponies and mares he didn’t know, watching the iron-clad behemoth tear through his home was just too much!
He just stared up at the tank, thinking it was like some alien creature. In general, it was box-shaped, although it did bulge in the middle giving the entire thing a sloped gradient. A similar box-shaped turret was planted on top, though separate to allow it to pivot independently of the main body and swing the impressive length of its cannon to bear on any unfortunate target. The kicker however was, at more than four times his length and the main body twice his height, it was quite easily the largest thing he’d ever seen in motion!
“Shit,” the mare swore, “Oh, Celestia, I thought we had more time than this!” Even she looked distraught at the sight of it.
In short, it knocked the wind from his sails. While the metal ponies were intimidating, he could see they were just that: ponies. But this! This he couldn’t tell beginning from end. There was no precedent he could work off of, no prior knowledge on how to slow or stop such a massive beast.
Brave, however, just lit up as the tank stormed through the peace of their little world. It was the same grin he wore when he’d found the Stable door. A grin that signalled that he had what he thought was a brilliant plan. The mare was the first one to notice it.
“And what the hell are you smiling at?”
Brave’s gaze didn’t leave the tank, but his grin only widened as words met air.
“I’m going to have that thing.”(XXXXXX)
The moment that moving wall of destruction arrived on the scene, it had a quick and fatal effect on the morale of the security force. Its entrance alone, smashing through a wall known for its thickness, sent the shaken guards into a panic. It was only when it started rolling towards them that they all broke rank and fled towards the residential area, to hell with the suppressing gunfire of the metal ponies. Valour, however, was blind to it. Her entire fury was focused on these ponies, these invaders who came in and shoot at her ponies!
Blue Shield tried to get the Overmare to retreat too, but quickly gave up when he found she’d rather shout commands to phantom forces and ran too. The first Valour noticed she was alone, the lead metal pony had walked around the crate of melons she had taken cover behind. She told no chance in resisting him, as the metal pony easily dragged her from her hiding place and flung her in front of his other four companions.
Valour was pony-shaped fury being pushed in several directions at once. Anger at the metal ponies for invading her home and shattering her peace! Anger at her cowardly security force, for running scared from half a dozen particularly well equipped ponies! Anger at her brother for creating alarm that very day and making them all lax to a real threat! This was his fault at the core of it; she’d always feared his obsession with the outside would lead to their Stable’s ruin.
Her mind wheeled around and around, a fit of blazing passion fuelling her rage. It was only then, with nothing obscuring her view, that she noticed the tank rumbling up near the warehouse. In an instant, the fury drained out of her.
“But... how?” she asked, staring at the tank.
“Mechanisms throughout the original Stable which raise bulkheads,” the lead invader said, his voice rasping through a speaker as he spoke for the first time, “The digging equipment had to get in somehow originally.”
Valour’s eyes widened on hearing the metal pony. She didn’t know that about this place, and she was the Celestia-damned Overmare! How in Tartarus did this outsider know this?
“Speaking of which,” the invader went on, “We heard a rumour that there is an EV-33 ‘Mole’ was moved in here the day the bombs fell. Could you tell us where it is?”
Valour knew he wasn’t asking. The menace came through the civil tone with oozing thickness.
“Not on your life!” she spat. The lead pony responded by pushing her over and stepped on her hind leg. Valour hissed as the initial pressure when down on her limb, pinning it to the ground. She could feel the strength in that metal limb.
“I’ll ask again,” he said, in that too, too civil tone, “Where is the Mole?”
A little bit more hesitant this time, but still the same. “Go to hell.”
SNAP!
Valour didn’t hide it after; she cried like a foal. The pain was excruciating, like a fire in her leg was eating it. That was the point her will broke. She was a civil leader, born to direct normal ponies, not hold out against torture! So when the metal pony moved his hoof to her other hind leg, she’d given up.
“-No *hic*, no, no, please...” she sobbed, “It’s- It’s down that tunnel.” She pointed to where the latest cavern was being dug. After a moment, seeming to contemplate whether she was lying to him or not, the lead pony turned to two of the others with him.
“Glimmer Flash, Lunar Dusk, go check it out. If you get the part, do so,” he said. The two addressed ponies then nodded and galloped off. The lead invader meanwhile turned back to Valour. She gulped and sobbed, trying to keep the pain in check.
“Just to let you know,” the lead invader said, “If they come back empty-hooved, I’m going to ask you again.”
Valour shivered at this, these words pushing her to a horrific conclusion. This was the end for her. The end for her and the Stable. Her greatest fear had come to pass: the Stable door had opened and was now sucking everything they had built. Enemies immune to bullets. Engines of warfare which the thickest wall couldn’t stop. How were they meant to stand up to that? She sobbed, this time not from pain but from the impending hopelessness. Stable 106 was about to die.
“Hey!”
The voice, unmuffled by machine or metal, called out clearly. All the metal ponies turned to the owner, but Valour didn’t need to. It was a voice that Valour was very familiar with.
“Get your fucking hooves off my sister!”
(XXXXXX)
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
I apologise in advance for the atrocious level of writing in this snippet. The words just weren't coming easily today. I might even just rewrite this section from scratch in the final draft, because I feel its just that poor.
Here's this story's true self finally coming out now; robbing a tank. And this is just the beginning...
- Chapter 1, Snippet 11:
- Several Minutes Before
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
“I said I’m going to take that thing,” Brave answered, still eyeing the tank, “Just tell me where the hatch is!”
The mare just looked stunned. Nopony could just believe they could just take a tank! This buck couldn’t be real, could he?
“On top,” she answered, “But you’re not going to get in. That thing’s sealed from the inside.”
Of course, she could never have known that Brave had stopped listening to her after the first bit. Those two words had sent Brave’s mind spinning, a state which blocked out the rest of the world during it.
“Drill!” Drillbit jumped at the mention of his name. “Keep an eye out would you?”
There wasn’t even enough time for Drillbit to give an answer though as Brave was already galloping after the tank, a grin on his face.
Catching up to the lumbering behemoth with ease, Brave leapt onto the tank before scrambling up onto the turret and rapped on the hatch with a hoof. A moment later, it popped open and a pony rose out from the interior.
“Ugh, you’re not a looker, are you?” Brave asked. The pony was indeed the ugliest he’d ever seen. His coat was practical gone accept for a few tufts here and there, with several large sores littering his skin. One milky eye veered off to the side as he stared, but the healthy one went wide as he saw Brave.
Before he could pull a weapon, before he could close the hatch, before he could react, Brave’s hoof shot out and clobbered him across the temple. In the momentary disorientation he lost his footing and tumbled back into the tank. Brave immediately jumped in after him.
Back on the slope, Drillbit and the mare watched on in silent shock. Though their shock was divided along the lines of ‘he’s in that thing now’ and ‘that actually worked!’ respectively.
After that, it was just one mental false start after another for the mare. What she’d just witnessed defied all the logic she knew. It should not have been possible for anypony to just walk up, knock on the hatch and suddenly have a tank.
Those were the words which broke her mind stall: ‘have a tank.’ He had a tank! He had stolen a tank from the Veterans. Suddenly, she found she was restless. Dumb luck might have given her the chance, but she had to do something to secure.
She had already started towards the tank, when she remembered she wasn’t alone. It was then that she turned back to Drillbit, who was still entranced by the scene on the tank. “Well, are you coming?”
The smaller pony jumped at her voice and pointed at himself, as if to ask ‘me?’
“Yeah, do you want to help your friend?” she asked, inclining her head towards the tank.
This seemed to drive Drillbit to his hooves. “Uh, yeah, Miss... Uh...” He stumbled and the mare suddenly realised she had introduced herself.
“Sunlight,” she said, turning back.
Here's this story's true self finally coming out now; robbing a tank. And this is just the beginning...
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
New update. Gdoc updated.
Sorry for leaving it in such an 'in the middle' place, but the heat was getting to me today. Just wanted to laze about all day. Still, I posted something and am on track to finish Chapter 1 soon.
- Chapter 1, Snippet 12:
- Meanwhile in the tank, Brave’s initial success on the turret was quickly being lost. The moment he’d jumped into the tank, he found himself in a small, cramped space, too uncomfortable for him to fight in. The ugly pony had capitalised on this advantage, lying on his back and keeping Brave away with flailing hind hooves while trying to get a sword leaning against the loader between his teeth.
“Man, you’re a tough one, huh?” Brave said, just avoiding a kick to the jaw and repositioning his stance on the commander’s chair, “I suppose having a pretty face isn’t an advantage, is it?”
“Shut up!” the ugly pony answered, the voice strained as he stretched his neck out. He caught the sword’s hilt in his teeth.
The moment he got a got grip on it, he kicked off the commander’s chair and heaved himself up onto the loader. Brave was surprised when the pony clamped down on a bit and the sword lit up with a pale blue light. The blade hummed as it was positioned to skewer him through and the pony lunged at Brave.
Brave had little room, little time and less options. So doing the first thing he could think of, he hurled himself off the commander’s seat and into the driver’s foot well. He slammed into it hard, touching the accelerator and causing the tank to lurch forward.
It was only then that he noted it was a bad idea. But as much as his shoulder hurt, he just couldn’t lie there. Pushing himself to his hooves, he turned just as the sword-wielding was turning on the commander’s seat, frustration on his face. Oh, he was sick of this and Brave knew the pony wanted him dead. He may have even got his wish, had Sunlight not appeared that moment.
The moment was like something out of his imagination. Dropping through the hatch hind hooves first, she landed on the pony’s head with her full weight, knocking him flying. If that didn’t put him out for the count, his subsequent head-first dive into the floor definitely did. The sword, no longer iridescent, clattered to a stop beside Brave.
For a moment after, there was only silence. Sunlight sat warily in the commander’s chair, staring down at the unconscious pony between her and Brave. Brave stared up at her, this mare swooped in and saved him. She was good, more impressive than him. Suddenly, he started seeing her as more than just the representation of the open door. She could help Drill and him.
“Thanks,” Brave said, breaking into another huge grin, “You’ve saved me a lot of time with him.” Sunlight scowled at him.
“Are you kidding? He was about to impale you!” She shook her head and glanced around at their prize. To her eyes, it was... strange to say the least. The layout was similar, but the instruments were vastly different, especially in the radio operator’s section. It made some of the tanks the Student Council owned look comparatively primitive. Her gaze once more settled upon the brash, young pony getting up across from her. He was just a Stable pony. Would he even know where to begin to know how to operate complex machinery such as this? “Do you even know how to drive this thing?”
“I dunno,” he said, tapping the accelerator. Once more the tank lurched forward. “How hard could it be?”
That wasn’t what she wanted to hear.
Sorry for leaving it in such an 'in the middle' place, but the heat was getting to me today. Just wanted to laze about all day. Still, I posted something and am on track to finish Chapter 1 soon.
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
New update. Sorry for the few day wait, I was find it hard to sit down and write. GDoc as well.
- Chapter 1, Snippet 13:
- “Is it safe to come in?”
The two ponies looked up to see Drillbit’s head appearing upside-down from the hatch.
“Uh, as safe as it’s going to be for a while,” Sunlight said, glancing down at the unconscious ghoul below her.
Drillbit nodded and turned to lower himself down. Believing the colt to be able to handle that be able to handle that by himself, she turned to the rest of the tank; other things needed attending to. Her attention had only left him for a second, however, when the young teenager slipped and fell straight into her lap.
She yelped as the weight was dropped on her, but more out of surprise than pain. Once she had realised what had happened, she looked down to see Drillbit looking just as surprised as he was.
For a moment, they maintained that awkward stare. But as she watched, Drillbit grew steadily redder and redder, until at last he hopped off her and slunk into a corner. Before he secluded himself completely however, she shot him a smile to reassure him. She remembered being that age, where the embarrassment from every little mistake felt like life or death.
Leaving the younger pony to himself, she turned back to the other pony there, who was by this time staring at the tank controls with a puzzled expression. Were the controls just as alien to him as to her?
“Anything the matter?” she asked.
Brave rubbed his head, considering the controls one final time. “Why are there six pedals when there are only four directions?”
She felt her brain backlash at this statement, it was just that absurd. It took her am moment to straighten her thoughts and when she did, it brought her to a single conclusion. This pony had no idea what he was doing!
“Look, I’ll deal with driving the tank,” Sunlight said, getting up from the commander’s chair. She pointed to the ghoul and quickly to him, “You toss him overboard.”
Brave took one last look at the driving instruments, and it was in doing this that his eyes fell across the blade again. He stood there, considering it there for a moment before he picked it up and slipped it into his sash. Then he turned to the unconscious pony and heaved him up onto his back.
Sunlight jumped down to the driver’s seat and studied the controls. At least this was a layout she was familiar with. The six pedals and the little reinforced window where right where they were supposed to be. Glancing out the grimy window, she could see the five Veteran’s standing in the distance between two warehouses, evidently looking down at something.
“What are you doing?”
Sunlight glanced to the side to see the little pony looking at her expectantly.
“I’m going to try and stop the other Veterans,” she said quickly, “Whatever they’re looking for it can’t be good.”
“Veterans?” the smaller pony repeated, momentarily confused, “You mean the metal ponies?”
Sunlight nodded, though she only wished their description was as simple as that.(XXXXXX)
Brave had just heaved the ugly driver out of his tank when the mare got the tank moving. Oh, that hum that came up through him was something! Like a beast roaring to life beneath his hooves.
He swore, he was going to learn to drive this thing and see the world in it! That mare evidently knew how to guide this machine. He didn’t even care that she saw him as a fool; he was going to get her to teach him how to drive this beast of steel and fire!
With idyllic thoughts for the future on his mind, he rolled the ugly pony off the back of the tank and watched as they left him behind. Then he started to relish the feeling of motion without walking. The light breeze on his coat was odd, but he felt he enjoyed it.
His good mood was lost when he turned around. From his vantage point, he could see three of the metal ponies standing near a couple of warehouses. At their hooves and laying on her side, the orange coat of Valour stood out from between them. And even from this distance, he could see her shaking.
“Hey! Get your fucking hooves off my sister!”
The tank ground to a halt. He didn’t flinch when all those visors turned on him. He just stood and glared at the ponies who stared back in silence. Yeah, he didn’t like Valour; as far as he could see, she was backward, superstitious and, most importantly, constantly an obstacle to his ventures. But as frustrating as it was, her heart was in the right place. And that, for him, was the vast divide between dislike and ill-intent. So to see several outsiders surrounding the prone figure of his sister flipped a switch in him.
“Well?” he asked.
One pony, apparently the leader, looked down to the tank before looking back to him.
“How’re you...?”
“Like it?” Brave asked, tapping the hull, “We robbed off your friend back there. So yeah, we have this thing, while you have those suits. So, I’m going to ask nicely-!”
“Where’s Dereva?” another one interrupted, this rasping voice being higher than the other, possibly female.
Brave blinked away surprise at the sudden interruption. “Who?” he asked.
“The driver, you imbecile!” the strange mare snapped, “Where is he?”
Brave glanced back. Sure enough, the pony he’d dumped earlier was still there.
“He’s back there taking a nap in the dirt,” he said to the three, pointing back.
Almost at once, all their hooves erupted in flames. Brave watched in amazement as the three pony rose from the ground to hover in the air, hooves still alight.
One of them, the one who’d specified asked about the driver in fact, extended blades at shoulder level. With a subtle shifting of weight, she shot at him at high speeds. Seeing the metal pony flying at him, he wrenched the sword from his sash into his teeth and ducked to the side. The flying pony’s blades barely missed him. At the same time, he swung back, tonguing the trigger. The blade lit up blue just as it met the foreleg armour at ankle level.
It really was just like a hot knife through butter, the sword carved through the front two boosters with ease. And without them to balance her out, the pony lost control and began pirouetting through the air, until she slammed into an adjacent warehouse wall. She hit it with a silencing crack.
“Huh, you guys can fly,” Brave said, looking the crumpled pile that was his assailant. He turned back to the other two remaining hovering figures, a huge grin forming around the humming sword, “This is going to be interesting.”
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
Apologies for the long wait again. Inspiration struck for another work of mine and that sucked away a few days of writing time. But here it is, the last section of chapter 1. Enjoy. GDoc updated.
Alright, now that Chapter 1 is complete, I'm going to talk about a few things. One, I'm going to take a few days off to touch up the first chapter. After that Chapter 2. But, for now, here are a few planned revisions for the first chapter.
If you want to suggest anything else, or weigh in on Brave/Braveheart, I'd love to hear from you.
Second, there may be a couple of you who noticed that the opening of the first chapter was aped from the first episode of Gurren Lagann. Do not worry, this isn't going to be a retelling of GL with post-apocalyptic ponies. Starting subtly next chapter, but exploding in Chapter 3 onwards, will be many references to other anime. It was just that in my head, FoE and the opening of GL lined up so well.
So I hope to hear feedback, discussion, anything at all. Did you love it? Did you hate it? What do you hope to see in it? How can I improve it?
And, of course, thank you for reading.
- Chapter 1, Snippet 14 (Final):
The tank roared into motion, the treads spinning until they catch pursue, at which point at the machine swerved back in an L-turn. A moment later, two autocannon rounds passed through the space Brave’s head had occupied just a moment ago. Completing its turn, it then lunged forward in an escape, the two metal ponies giving chase.
(XXXXXX)
“What the hell is he at?!” Sunlight ground her teeth and jammed her hooves into the pedals. She turned to Drillbit, who was understandable looking overwhelmed by the ordeal. But he’d have to get over that, she needed him.
“Hey, take over for a minute, would you?” she asked, offering the driving controls to the younger pony. Drillbit looked taken aback at this request.
“W-W-What? Me?” he asked, “But I wouldn’t even know where to begin!”
Sunlight rolled her eyes, before lifting her hooves off the two depressed pedals and putting then pointing to each pedal in turn. “Left track forward. Right forward. Left reverse. Right reverse. Left brake. Right brake. Alternate between left and right to turn the tank. Try and keep her steady, I’m going to try and get them off our backs.”
“What?!” Drillbit asked, looking around but not daring to take his hooves off the pedals. But Sunlight was already gone, having leapt up onto the commander’s chair and up to the hatch. Climbing up onto the turret, she found Brave, sword planted in the tank and looking back with a giddy expression at the two Veterans. He was enjoying this and that just annoyed.
“Oy,” she snapped at him, “What the damn hell?”
Not seeming to even notice her tone, he turned and grinned at her. “Hey, look! They’re flying!”
She barely gave the airborne power armour a glance. She was too used to sights like these. “Yeah, the Veteran’s tend to use whatever experimental power armour they find in that warehouse of theirs.” Her expression hardened as her thoughts turned to the two reasons why she came up here. Spreading her stance, she planted herself for the recoil of her AM-rifle. “But now we’re talking about you. What was it you were thinking, bring us to their attention?”
Pausing, she caught the firing bit in her mouth and tongued the trigger. The rapport was thunder up close and though the bullet went wide, it did have the desired effect of scattering the two Veterans.
“We could have snuck up on them before they realised we’d taken the tank. Blown them sky high!” she continued, spitting out the bit. “Instead, we’re engaged in a high-speed chase around the cavern.”
Brave shook his head, trying to rid himself of the ringing of the shot. “Well that just poor sportsponyship,” he retorted, “You need to pony up. Face your opponent in a battle of wills! Only then can you achieve real victory!”
Sunlight couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Had he even been in a fight?
“Besides,” he continued, his voice suddenly switching to a much sombre tone, “My sister was there. They had her surrounded. Like hell, I was going to let you blow her up with them.”
Sunlight flaring temper wavered. She could understandable that, preserving a loved one. Maybe there was something, between those ears after all. Not brain, but something.
The Veterans started to rearrange themselves by now, so Sunlight kicked the loader and fired again. Once more they swerved, but this time they swerved together before realigning themselves and firing back on them with the autocannons. It was only Sunlight dragging Brave down off the turret and onto the tank’s main body that saved him from being perforated.
“Damn,” she spat, “Guess last time was just the element of surprise. They’re keeping together.”
She bite her cheek in frustration, just realising how screwed they were. If they were on the ground, this would have been little harder than shooting the academy targets. But in the air, they were unpredictable, nearly impossible to hit them with a round let alone nail them in a place that would kill them. They however had volume of fire as well as higher ground to their advantage... If she had her team, her proper team, with her, that would level the playing field. But she didn’t, she was just a cog, one cog in a bigger machine and alone she was ill-equipped to deal with this and she shouldn’t have come here and she was going to die and and and
“Are you okay?” Brave asked.
Sunlight grit her teeth and took a long shaky sigh. “We’re out matched,” he began, “In equipment and in advantages, they have us beat. We may have the tank, but to fight air-bound infantry it’s useless. It might as well be a big can of fruit. Just open it up, and feast on the juicy ponies inside.”
Brave sat there blinking at her. “Huh. Didn’t pin you for the type to give up so easily.”
“I’m giving up, because there’s no chance we can win,” she groused.
“Now, that’s not the way I see it,” he told her, “Yeah, from this angle they just look like a bunch of jackasses who just stumbled some fancy armour. Then they got so overconfident, they decided they could take us on, thinking they were stronger and better than us. But we fight anyway. And as long as we can still fight, the enemy can’t just assume they’ve won.” He got to his hooves up, standing to his full height. “And neither can we assume they’ve won!”
Before Sunlight even realised what he was doing, he was on top of the turret. The Veterans started firing on him the moment they caught sight of him, but Brave didn’t pay any heed to this. The moment he was up there, his eyes focussed on the sword planted upright in front of him. He lunged for it, grabbing the hilt in his teeth and swinging the blade as he torn it from the hull.
By some Luna-ordained miracle, the arcing blade hit one of the rounds and sent it right back where it came from. The lead Veteran’s left booster exploded as the rebounding bullet hit it. It was only on three uneasy legs that the pony was able to get himself back onto solid ground. The other Veteran broke off the chase too to aid his commander.
Sunlight just watched on in utter disbelief. He done it... this idiot, this strange, amazing idiot had done it. Through whatever Discord-given luck he had, he’d managed to turn the tables on their enemies. He even had the confidence to look back to her, just to grin.
“Because we all just might be wrong.”
This was it. He’d given her exactly what she’d wanted: the two Veterans on the ground. Climbing back up on to the turret beside him and levelled her rifle at the uninjured one. Whatever higher power, fate or chance, had given them another chance, she wasn’t going to waste it. Or that was her intent before Brave shouldered her out of the way of several bullets.
They both hit the steel of the turret hard. Glancing out at where the fire was coming from, she noticed two more Veterans running towards their comrades. They appeared to have come from another tunnel nearby and one of them had something large strapped to their back.
“Keep moving! Don’t stop!” the boss roared as his companion wrapped his foreleg around him in preparation for taking off, “Into the air! We’re leaving!”
Sunlight was still scrambling to her feet when the far two Veterans were leaping into the air and fired all thrusters. Even the other two were balanced on seven thrusters by the time she was up and all of them were converging back on the warehouse entrance.
“Oh, Celestia damnit!” he shouted, before turning and rushing straight for the hatch.
Brave could tell when she taken over again when the tank suddenly braked and spun around in place to face the warehouse.
Who the hell did they think they were, he wondered, breaking into their home, terrorising them and then fleeing when things looked bad. Seemed it was more than the mare that needed to pony up and learn to fight their battles head on. Somepony needed to teach them a lesson.
As the rumbled towards the warehouse entrance, it was happenstance that it passed right by the Overmare.
“Hey, Valour!” he called, “Close the Stable door behind us!”
Valour turned quickly to Brave, only seeming to notice the tank and her brother’s presence when he spoke.
“We’ll trap them outside with us!” he said, smiling at his sister.
But before she could put together formulate a response, the tank was already past her at a sprint. The last she saw of her brother was him, standing on a speeding tank, destined for the Stable door.
And honestly, she wasn’t sure how to feel about that.(XXXXXX)
Drillbit climbed up onto the turret as they passed through into the foyer and was surprised by the sudden blast of air.
“Come on up,” Brave said, encouraging him, “The breeze is great!”
Encouraged by this, Drillbit climbed and stood beside Brave. The two watch as section after section passed them by, joined by bulkheads they had known were there before and were only passing thoughts now, until they arrived at the Stable entrance.
This was it. If he had any hesitations, now was the time to do it. But then, the open door came into view and a light, brighter and yellower and warmer than any he’d ever seen before, shone through it. That enough gave him reason to stay and he planting himself on his hind quarters. One look wouldn’t hurt.
“This is it, Drill,” Brave said, sitting down beside the little pony, “It may not be the way I imagined, but we finally got outside.
“How did you imagine it, Bro?” Drill asked.
“With the Overmare screaming a lot more. And at us too.”
Together the two soul brothers started to laugh, until Drillbit suddenly noticed blood matting Brave’s leg.
“Bro,” he said, concerned, “You’re hurt.”
“Give it a minute, Drill,” he said, his gaze now fixed on the halo of light, “This is too important.”
Reluctantly, Drillbit pushed his concern aside. Instead, he watched as the Stable door came up to meet them and they finally took their first breath of the outside.
Chapter End
Alright, now that Chapter 1 is complete, I'm going to talk about a few things. One, I'm going to take a few days off to touch up the first chapter. After that Chapter 2. But, for now, here are a few planned revisions for the first chapter.
- Changes to Chapter 1:
- Few instances of Drillbit being called just Drill in narrative. Drill should only be used in dialogue. Correct that.Should it be Brave or Braveheart? Brave would still be the diminutive form.The purpose of ‘the Mole’ explained as being used to dig major tunnels to start new chambers. Drillbit has never seen it move, this chamber being started before her was born.Better describe some areas, but especially the layout of the main cavern where the main action of the second half of the chapter happen. It was supposed to be storage warehouses at one end with the residential at the other end. It’s only implied throughout.
Sunlight introduced wearing a (khaki?) uniform.Bring up Brave’s blue sash before the vibrosword appears.Describe characters better throughout. Some major characters only have one aspect of their appearance described. However, do not go overboard either.
For the sake of diversity (and a portrayal of Simon as a pony on Deviantart), Drillbit is now a unicorn. No major magic, but subtle references to this will be scattered throughout.
If you want to suggest anything else, or weigh in on Brave/Braveheart, I'd love to hear from you.
Second, there may be a couple of you who noticed that the opening of the first chapter was aped from the first episode of Gurren Lagann. Do not worry, this isn't going to be a retelling of GL with post-apocalyptic ponies. Starting subtly next chapter, but exploding in Chapter 3 onwards, will be many references to other anime. It was just that in my head, FoE and the opening of GL lined up so well.
So I hope to hear feedback, discussion, anything at all. Did you love it? Did you hate it? What do you hope to see in it? How can I improve it?
And, of course, thank you for reading.
Veradon Chimera- Colt/Filly
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Join date : 2014-03-31
Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
Most of you won't care, but here's the compiled and touched up, final version of chapter 1. Most of it is the same except for an extra scene between snippet 5 and 6, which is there below. But first the link:
Chapter 1, Complete
And the extra scene, bridging what Drillbit was doing between the two snippets, because I thought that before it was a bit of a jump.
Chapter 1, Complete
And the extra scene, bridging what Drillbit was doing between the two snippets, because I thought that before it was a bit of a jump.
- Chapter 1, Snippet 5.5:
- (XXXXXX)Drillbit was deposited outside the Council’s warehouse onto the main chamber. Not nearly as tall as the Mushroom Fields, at about fifteen feet at its highest, the main chamber was still incredibly large, ground wise. It was especially apparent at this end of the chamber.Whereas the north end was mostly living quarters as well as the most important services, the south end was a park-size recreational area, only punctuated by the support pillars. Lining the walls which surrounded this area were several warehouses, but the most impressive was the one he just came from, mostly because so few had ever been in there.As Drillbit skirted the wall back to his little apartment at the edge of the residential district, he reflected on what the Overmare had said. He really hadn’t anyone, did he? If it weren’t for Brave, he’d just drill all day, go home, eat and then go to sleep. Rinse and repeat. And his only association being with Brave didn’t help at all. The young stallion was only mocked and ridiculed for what he believed.What would his life have been had he never known Brave? Would he have been better or worse for having been in among the Overmare’s herd?But then, Brave was the only one that he felt told him a heartfelt truth.
Stopping, he turned fully towards the residential district, knowing what he had to do.
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
Sorry for taking so long in jumping into Chapter 2. Had a bit of a health scare, but everything's turned out grand.
This is the first snippet for the second chapter. Sorry for it being so iffy, I literally slotted the Veteran's section in at the last minute to prevent a massive infodump later, so there will be a few contradictions throughout. I felt it was the most natural time in the near future to divulge this information, otherwise the main cast would spend ages wandering around without any idea who the villains are. However, I definitely want to smooth the transitions between sections at a later date.
Hope you enjoy.
Just realised you Americans are celebrating your Independence Day today. Probably wasn't the best time to post a new section. Ah well, hope you all had a good day.
This is the first snippet for the second chapter. Sorry for it being so iffy, I literally slotted the Veteran's section in at the last minute to prevent a massive infodump later, so there will be a few contradictions throughout. I felt it was the most natural time in the near future to divulge this information, otherwise the main cast would spend ages wandering around without any idea who the villains are. However, I definitely want to smooth the transitions between sections at a later date.
Hope you enjoy.
- Chapter 2, Snippet 1:
- Brave just lay on the turret of the tank gazing up at the sky as they rumbled through the landscape. He’d seen pictures of it before in the few magazines to have survived, but they couldn’t hope to capture the vastness of it. It was there, he could see it, but he couldn’t see where it ended. All that up and which stretched out in all directions.It was a bit too much for Drillbit, who had taken one look at the endless blue and nearly passed out from it. Currently, he was sitting inside the tank and coming to terms with it all. But Brave... he was happy. This was exactly what he wanted; horizons in all directions.“You really should have told me you were bleeding out earlier,” Sunlight said, as she surveyed the scrubland with a telescope.“Nah, It’d a’right. I feel good,” he answer, too mellowed out to care.“That’s the blood-loss, idiot. You’re even slurring,” Sunlight snipped back, “Going to need to see a doctor for that. You’re lucky the Veterans got away, otherwise I might have chose hunting them and left you to fade away.”A sharp taste rose in the back of Brave’s throat as she said this. As soon as they had gotten outside the Stable door, the first thing they nothing (well, apart from everything else) was the four remaining Veterans climbing onto some sky-bound tank. By the time Sunlight got one shot off at them, they had fled beyond any effective firing range they had.That left Brave rubbed the wrong way. He told the Overmare they would chase them down, yet here they were having lost them at the starting block. Even through the blooded haze, he still recognised that. And being roadblocked after declaring his intent to do something just annoyed him.“Heya, Shunbeam,” he began, “Where would they ha’ gone?”Slipping her telescope into her front pocket, Sunlight thought about this for a moment. “Well, I don’t personally know about the routines of the Veterans, but I would think that after getting a major part like that, they would head straight back to the their main base in MAw storehouse. They had a sky-tank and everything, so there’d be no point risking assets either.”“Then that’s where we’re going, isn’t it? All engines full steam ahead to this maw warehouse!”He pointed a hoof off in where Sunlight had been surveying, the fact that he was indicating in the completely wrong the direction being the least of her problems with this plan.“First of we’re not doing that. One, that doctor you need to see, yeah?” She pointed out his wound once more. “Second, we are not traversing up to the south of the peninsula, through Veteran territory I might add, just to stir them in a warehouse full of experimental prototypes, and... you don’t have any scope on the size of these ponies, do you?”Brave shrugged, “They’re a couple of tinheads with a few impressive toys and they’re down a tank.”Sunlight rolled her eyes and turned back towards the hatch, “Look, I’m going have to tell you some truths about the real world after you’ve been seen to. There’s a town nearby, Rig. They’re not a fan of either the Student Council nor the Veterans, but at least they’ll talk to us, so we’ll be heading there first. Then... I probably should return to a Council Outpost.”As she climbed back into the tank, Brave just laid back and stared up at the sky.The surface is a strange place, he thought. Veterans, Maw warehouses, Student Councils... And he thought the factions and bureaucracy down is Stable 106 was bad.Okay, so maybe things weren’t as different up here as he thought they’d be, the most important aspect was still retained: the horizon was still there.(XXXXXX)“So, those guys that attacked us back in the Stable... You keep calling them Veterans.”Brave had his good foreleg draped over Drillbit, keeping his weight off the injured one. Sunlight had insisted they leave the tank below a nearby ridge and approach the town of Rig on hoof. And since Brave curiosity had only grown over the past couple hours, he figured now was as good a time as any to ask.“So,” he continued, “You know much about these guys?”Sunlight nodded, her entire demeanour seeming to grow stern in response to building emotion. “The Veterans are one of the oldest factions here in the Testing Stage,” she began, “From what we know of them is that they are two battalions from the war, one Equestrian, one Zebra. About twenty years after the megaspells fell, they turned up in these two carriers lead by two leaders, Major Azure Song and Primus Vencer. They holed up in the Ministry of Awesome storehouse down south, which they’ve since been using as a base. From there, they send teams abroad to collect information and parts, just like they did with your Stable. Except for Song and Vencer, they never leave the storehouse.”“Wait,” Drillbit said, stopping Sunlight, “I thought you said Song and Vencer lead them here. How are they still around, then? Did their names become titles or something?”“No, no, no, that’s the strangest part. That’s the reason you’re probably even here at all. A balefire missile failed on the way to Equestria and fell near the island they were fighting on. They were just outside the killzone of the blast, but the radiation got the two armies. The ones that survived became like zomponies, and with it a gift so that now time can’t kill them. What they became, we call them Ghouls. And every Veteran you see today is a Ghoul who fought in the Great War.”Brave thought back on the ugly pony from the tank, realising he did look like a zombie, didn’t he. “Huh, I have to admit, for as much as they were dicks in the Stable, that’s pretty cool.” Sunlight chuckled at this.“Yeah, it kinda is,” she said, “It’s too bad they just scavenge when their away and cause trouble back here.”Meanwhile, Drillbit focused on putting one hoof in front of the other, staring at the ground as he walked towards the town and trying his best not to look at that up that went on forever.When a decent silence fell on the three again, he decided to ask, “Why couldn’t we take the tank with us?”“Two reasons, though they overlap a good bit,” Sunlight answered, “One, only the Veterans have tanks like that and we wouldn’t want to be giving the wrong impression. But, two, generally, ponies don’t like anyone taking mobile weapon platforms into their homes. You do that, they’ll get angry no matter how innocent your intent.”Drillbit’s shoulders slumped a fraction. “Oh... That makes sense, I guess.”Brave however, between his own personality and the recent blood-loss, was spacing out and laughing himself now. He seemed to be getting immense enjoyment from something the other two couldn’t see. That just worried Drillbit more. They needed to get him to a doctor now, and right now Drillbit needed to be brave to do that quickly. Gathering a reign on his fear of the sky, he raised his head a bit and saw the town properly for the first time.For somepony who had never seen wooden buildings before, he found it quite strange and impressive. It was a single street town, though there were a few scattered houses behind the building on the main street. At the head of the town was a large building which dominated the backdrop.So engrossed was in the scene, that he was surprised when Sunlight shunted him from the road over to the side of a house. She quickly followed with Brave in tow.“What?” Brave asked, acting like he’d just woken up, “What’s happening?”Sunlight peered around the corner at, presumably, what she had hidden them from.“Raiders,” she said, the word making her sound physically ill. Wanting context, Drillbit leaned out as well and followed the mare’s gaze up to a rooftop. There, sat on a chair with sniper rifle to his side, was the strangest unicorn he’d ever seen. Grubby and worse for wear, in places his coat had fallen out and left bald patches. His left ear was torn, several of his teeth were broken and one of his hooves seemed to be held together with Wonderglue. He sat there looking bored, bobbing his head to some unheard tune. Glancing around there were several more of these strange ponies interspersed among the rest of the populace at the far end of the street, including a small group up on the steps of the large building. All were well armed, tough looking and generally looked more at ease than the skittish townsfolk.“Are they as bad as they look?” Drillbit asked, drawing back around the building and away from their line of sight.Sunlight, meanwhile, was pulling off her tan jacket and folding it up neatly before she slipped it into her bag. “Well, they’re much more reasonable than those on the mainland, but still the most vicious ponies you can face out here. As cruel to each other as they are to us,” Sunlight answered, “But the real problem is who they work for. The Veterans don’t have the presence, so they give raider tribes powerful and well-maintained weapons in exchange for them keeping and running facilities for them, usually by holding the original inhabitants at gunpoint.”
Just realised you Americans are celebrating your Independence Day today. Probably wasn't the best time to post a new section. Ah well, hope you all had a good day.
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
Sorry, continuing Sunlight's explanation from the last section. Really, should have been posted in the same snippet. GDoc updated.
- Chapter 2, Snippet 2:
- An exasperated sigh turned her feature to match it. “They weren’t here last time though. This was an independent town and word spreads fast through the Testing Stage when any settlement is cohered to one side or the other. So they must have taken the town recently, otherwise I’d have heard about it.”Drillbit shifted where he stood. “So this place is the Veterans’?” he asked, looking around as though one of them was waiting to just waiting to jump out at them.Sunlight nodded, “Technically, though you’ll rarely more than one in a place like this, and that one will be acting as an advisor and a go-between to the raider chief.”“So, the Veterans took this place... What do they use it for?”Sunlight paled a bit as she thought about this. “Fuel,” she answered, “Rig is an oil field, that was unearthed by tests shortly before the Last Day. They’ve been supplied crude oil to anyone who will trade for the past century. Nopony’s taken over because it’s right between everyone who needs it. Taking it is akin to declaring war on everyone else, so for them to do so now means they have something big planned.” Her browed furrowed as she tried to comprehend the situation.A shiver ran the length of Drillbit, just catching a glimpse of what was worrying Sunlight. The invasion of their Stable wasn’t just an isolated event. They were stumbling onto something must bigger than he could have imagined.It was at this point that Brave chose to speak up, uncomfortably loud and equally blunt with his observations. “So, so these Veterans are being pricks and their planning to be even bigger pricks in the future. All we need to do is punch their lights out before that happens!”He tried to disentangle himself from Drillbit, but weak from blood-loss, he veered right into the building they were standing beside.“Hey!”Drillbit and Sunlight both turned to see a raider standing there. And up close, they were even more repulsive. His coat was thin in place and so that the rash came through in places. His eyes were blood-shot, his mane greasy and his face uneven. And the worst part, the bit that topped all the rest, were the four pony skulls attached to his saddlebags. The hollow eyes just made for morbid decoration.“What the fuck is with all the racket back here?” the raider asked.Drillbit cringed back, but Sunlight was thankfully quicker on the uptake.“Sorry, my friend’s just drunk.”The raider grunted. “Well, tell him to shut the fuck up. I got a hangover over here.” Then, touching a pistol slung at his chest, he added. “Another sound comes out of him and I’m shooting him, got it?”Sunlight held her breath until the raider was gone, ignoring a comment about her ass in the process; they had bigger concerns at the moment. She turned to Brave, who was picking himself up from the ground and was bracing himself against a wall.“Alright,” he said, breathless, “Maybe you have a point about seeing that doctor.”(XXXXXX)
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
Sorry for the delay (this is becoming a bad habit), I had a bad time trying to make the setting compliant with canon and then had a hard time trying to characterise the doctor in this snippet. GDoc updated.
Might sound like begging here, but does nobody have anything to say about this? I'm in no dangerous of stopping, but the lack of feedback is slightly disheartening.
- Chapter 2, Snippet 3:
- It didn’t take them long to find the town’s doctor. It was actually quite clearly marked, three pink butterflies perched in a window on their side of the street. Going alone the back of the houses to avoid any further interaction with the raiders, they knocked on the back door of the little clinic. A tan unicorn mare answered, looking like a decent night’s sleep had eluded her the past few days. Blinking back some of the tiredness, she looked surprised to see them at her back door.“Ah, hello,” Sunlight said, “Sorry, but one of my friends has been shot and he needs a doctor pretty quickly. And of course, we have the caps.”The doctor blinked again, before noticing the stained bandage on Brave’s leg. “Oh, of course. Yes.” She stepped back from the door and inviting them in. “Just get him up on the table.”Brave climbed up on the table and stretched his leg out. The doctor came over with a scissor and cut back the bandages to inspect the wound.“We’ll you must have a lucky star, because the bullet may have taken a chuck of meat, but all in all it’s just a nasty flesh wound. Clean it, bandage it again and give you a healing potion. Should be safe in about an hour.”“Huh? That all?” Brave asked, cocking his head before turning to Sunlight, “And you had us all worried about it.”Sunlight glared at Brave. “So what, you needed to see a doctor anyway, cuz none of us could tell how bad it was. I did the basis aid and that’s all it could.” Parcelling away her annoyance, she turned to the doctor. “Anyway, thank you for helping us, Ma’am.”“You’re lucky I’m helping you at all. If he weren’t so clearly not one of you, I’da turned you away at the door,” the doctor said harshly as she turn to the counter with her medical equipment on it. Sunlight stepped back, surprised by the sudden vehement tone. Even Drillbit and Brave were surprised at the sudden change of tone. It was only when she’d caught the alcohol and bandages in her magic and had turned back that the doctor noticed the stares being directed at her. “Oh, come off it! Think I can’t recognise a Council whore when I see one. It’s easy to spot, you all seem to hold yourselves in that same stance.”Both Brave and Drillbit both turned to Sunlight, being just as surprised at the insult being slung at her.“You’re a whore?” Brave asked with a forwardness of honesty which grated on Sunlight.“No!” she snapped, “She’s just using to insult me and my alliances. She’s not using it literally.”The doctor trotted up to Brave and began to work on him. “From the stories I hear of what officers order of those under them, I think I’m using it quite literally,” she quipped in a much too off-hoof tone.Sunlight turned on the doctor in an instant, but thankfully held her hoof.“That was one case,” she said in a low, dangerous growl, “We are not all like that!”The doctor didn’t falter under Sunlight’s wraith and even managed to match her glare. “Whatever. But you ponies set yourselves far too high above the rest of us; you act like your Celestia’s gift to the wasteland. Over a hundred and fifty years and I’m surprised that the Veterans haven’t grown sick of you Student Council-types and just made the push to break you.”Sunlight was fuming by this point and despite the fact that she felt she was better than her, that she was a Council pony, she was barely restraining both her tongue and her body from doing something stupid. So she was practically thankful when Brave’s curiosity caused him to suddenly cut in, giving her a distraction.“Hey, hey, hey!” he said, “What is this? Just what the hell’s a Student Council?” He was more than a bit miffed to be out of the loop, while Drillbit just looked confused.“They’re the most self-privileged pack of ponies on the whole of the Testing Stage,” the doctor chipped in swiftly before Sunlight could answer. Then she unrolled the bandages and began wrapping the injured hoof.Sunlight shot the doctor a glare before turning back to Brave and Drillbit and began.“They’re the other great faction of the Testing Stage, although the name is a relic at this point. The roots of the organisation are in the local school, Applebloom Academy, where all the children of the local workers when to school. They had a miniature Stable underneath the Academy and all the foals, fillies and colts were herded there when the bombs fell. Since there were no official protocols in that Stable, they were the only ones that came out when they realised that a megaspell hadn’t fallen here. From there, the Student Council just took charge, establishing a powerbase in the Testing Stage. As Stables opened again and towns slowly emerged, the Council’s influence spread when the towns near the Academy asked for their protection.”“Except when the Veterans showed up, you started scrambling for land,” the doctor suddenly cut in, wandering back over to the medical table, “You imposed your rule on dozens of towns that didn’t want you, took ‘taxes’ from them in exchange for protection and then only sent a patrol once or twice a month.”Sunlight shifted uncomfortable when the doctor pitched this in, not least of all because she’d seen there was a grain of truth in it.“We try our best,” she said bitterly, “And at least we don’t go around disappearing for months on end, only to come back with raiding spoils.”“Maybe, but what they do abroad is their own business. They do right here, you don’t. The Council’s just a hierarchy of fear, desperately holding onto whatever you have in case the Veterans take it. You make promises you cannot keep in the long run, so long as it gets you something in the short term,” the doctor argued, “At least there’s soon benefits to the Veterans. Like this!” She practically shoved a bottle into Sunlight’s face at this, “Healing potions, fresh and powerful, courtesy of the zebra alchemists.” She turned and floated the bottle over to Brave. “Of course, I’d prefer Rig to be under neither of you, but pressed I’d say we’ll be slightly better off this way. Here, drink this. It’ll go strides to healing that.”Brave drank the healing potion. Sunlight no longer trusted herself not to say something bitter. Yeah the Council wasn’t perfect and hadn’t always acted in the best interests of the ponies under it, especially when it was the Veterans opposed to them. But they did try their best with the resource they had! Who was this small-town mare to complain that they didn’t wave a magic wand and just make everything right? And for that matter, who wasn’t to say if they didn’t show their strength then the Veterans wouldn’t just trample over them?
Might sound like begging here, but does nobody have anything to say about this? I'm in no dangerous of stopping, but the lack of feedback is slightly disheartening.
Veradon Chimera- Colt/Filly
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Join date : 2014-03-31
Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
New update. Sorry for the slow-up overall this month. GDoc updated.
- Chapter 2, Snippet 4:
- The fact was she owed everything to the Council; her food, her safe childhood, her education. It was like an over-mother, one which watched over her own mother and her. Its influence was so invested in her life that to hear such spite directed towards it was personal. Like... like insulting a loved family member.Of course, she’d heard that conditions at the frontiers of their territory were less than optimal, and she tried to understand that, but... just standing here and listening to it was hard. Taking abuse against anything you cherished always was. And she didn’t trust herself to just stand and bear it for as long as they would have to be there. She had to get out.Drillbit was the first to notice her heading towards the door.“Where are you going?” His voice hitched as he spoke and she could see he was afraid that she was abandoning them. Brave, however, seemed to have been knocked on his arse by the potion and just lay there blinking between focuses.She shot him a small but honest smile. “Just... need to get out for a while, clear my head.” Ignoring the lingering doubt on Drillbit’s expression, she stepped outside.Alright, deep breathes. In through the nose and out through the mouth. Already, she felt much better. Anger was let go and doubts were gone. She was a Council pony, for good and for ill. More specifically, she was a Council pony undetected in enemy territory. And if this raider leader was anything like any other raider leader, size was going to matter to him. That would place him in the large town hall-esqe building at the end of town.Now normally she should have called for backup. Normally she shouldn’t have gone in alone. But the doctor had planted the seeds of doubt in her head and as far as she was concerned, an act of patriotism was needed to restate her loyalty to her home. No matter how small, no matter how dangerous.Looking around between the houses, she saw no pony about apart from a unicorn with his back to her washing his shirt. Shrugging the battle-saddle off, she stowed it in a log bin at the back of the doctor’s before wandering up the back of the houses toward the town hall.The plan was simple: where there was a raider leader, there was a Veteran acting as an advisor. And to catch them discussing anything in relation to their plans would be a boon.Finally after reaching the end of the houses, Sunlight cautiously walked over and sidled up to the hall itself. After a quick check around to see nopony was watching, Sunlight climbed up to the window and dragged herself in.The room she had crawled into was dark and wooden. Wooden floors, wooden furniture, wooden bits and bobs all cast in shadow. Sections of wood were also mismatched from the rest, as if they’d been replaced by an imperfect substitute since. Which was likely since before raiders, there had been townsfolk. It may have even looked warm in the morning with the sunlight streaming in, but now it just looked grim.Sunlight shook her head. She hadn’t time to be loitering and admiring the scene. Casting her gaze around, she found what she was looking for. A wooden sign, faded with age but still legible, displaying the words ‘Mayor’s Office’ with a small arrow pointing up the stairs next to it. As good a place as any to start.Keeping to the wall to silence her ascent up the stairs, Sunlight couldn’t help but be disgusted the sore lack of security. Give them as much shiny weapons and training as you want, you’ll be hard pressed to find a raider with any commitment to a job.Even as she reached the top of the stairs, the sound of voices was there to greet her. Her heart’s pace jumped a bit, but instinct reigned in the rest of her. Tripping lightly towards the doorway where they were coming from and saw that, indeed, the door was marked with the words ‘Mayor’s Office.’Raiders. They never were going to change.Sidling up to the door, Sunlight slowly angled herself so that she was looking in. Eventually, the sight of a raider wearing a ridiculous tricorn came into view.“We’re already operating it at full capacity,” the raider leader grumbled, “Though that just what I’m told. A few broken legs might adjust those townponies’ tunes.”“I don’t get you those potions just so you can torture ponies” another pony answered just out of sight. She assumed immediately from his raspy that this was the Veteran adviser, “Get one of the other drills operating, that’ll be infinitely more helpful.”“You’re no fun.”“Your fun is something you do in your own time, Mr. Bladeworks. This is business we are discussing.”“Yeah, yeah...” The raider, Bladeworks, tapped some ancient executive toy. Then he turned to the other pony, just enough that she could see he was wearing a ridiculous pair of shades. Where did these raiders get their dress sense? “It’s just that you’re asking for... I don’t even remember the number!”“One-hundred and fifty thousand kilos. But don’t worry, we’ve already gotten most of it.”“Well, thank Celestia for that, cuz I can only count to a hundred.” Bladeworks chuckled sat this. “But I’m hurt, sir. Where have you been getting this fuel if not from us?”“The zebra lands. That’s where The Orthros and The Cerberus were the past few months. Since it came back with its cargo, we’ve moored The Orthros indefinitely.”Moored indefinitely? Those two carriers were always going in and out of the peninsula. If they weren’t going anywhere... they were planning on staying right in Testing Stage.“What do you need... that much fuel for anyway?” Bladeworks asked.“Well, I shouldn’t even be saying this much.”A silence followed with Bladeworks waiting for the Veteran to speak. Eventually, when he realised his advisor wasn’t saying anything more, he leaned in out of Sunlight’s sight and nudged his companion.“Com’on! You can trust me. We’ve been working together for years! What’re those two up in the castle planning?”A slight pause, after which the Veteran spoke again much more excitedly. “Alright, alright! I suppose telling you couldn’t hurt...”A part of Sunlight couldn’t help but feel annoyed with the Veteran. He was supposed to be a soldier, which meant some degree of discretion. He wasn’t supposed to being mouthing off plans to anyone he considered a friend, as he appeared to consider this raider, especially when there could be ears to hear them.The rest of her, however, told that part to shut up and go in the corner, allowing the Veteran that was leaned in cocking an ear towards the hushed whisper, when the sound of metal clanging together rang the air, distracting all three of them. The sound was quickly followed by shouts. Shouts coming from outside, behind her.She had barely gotten away from the door and around the corner when the two ponies came out to see what was going on. Peering out at them again, she could see Bladeworks as his expression turned from shock, to disbelief, to indignation. And it was only causing dread on Sunlight, as she had her suspicions as to what it was.“What the hell?” Bladeworks roared, nostrils flaring, “Where’s my battle saddle? Who the fuck in that!” Turning to head right back into his office, the Veteran just stared at the scene.Curiosity was too much for Sunlight, the dread eating away at her stomach as her mind built nightmarish castles in the air. She couldn’t bare it. She just had to know! Standing on her hind legs and using a fore leg to balance against the wall, she looked out the window. In a single second, her castles were grounded.
“Oh, you idiot!”
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
New update.
- Chapter 2, Snippet 5:
- (XXXXXX)Several Minutes EarlierSince Sunlight had left the doctor’s, the room had been silent. And silence lends itself to thought. Laying at Brave’s side and waiting for Sunlight to return, Drillbit finally had a moment to process all that he’d been through the past few hours.The past few hours! It had just been that and what had happened? He’d opposed the Overmare, fought to save the Stable, promptly left the Stable and now they were hiding at the flashpoint of potential faction war! He’d though the surface was simple, there was ground and there was ground. But, this! This was infinitely more convoluted than he could have imagined!Suddenly, he felt overwhelmed. Like the room was expanding outwards and he could see they sky again. Burrowing his head in his forelegs didn’t help either. He wanted away from all of this.“Frederica!”Drillbit jumped at the sudden shout beside him. Turning, he saw Brave sitting up in drug ridden haze. However the look of realisation on his face couldn’t be dampened.“We captured Frederica,” he laughed, “We’re Tower Runner!”It took Drillbit a moment to get the reference, but he remembered the story that Old Crier used to tell the younger ones when the Overmare wasn’t looking. The tale was of a steel dragon, long before the Great War, who fell in love with a pony named Dominion, who was kind and generous. When Dominion eventually died, the dragon Fredrica built a shrine to her love and, as an ultimate symbol of her devotion, pretended to be her in front of those who visited.Now, this story was just the backdrop for a larger cycle. An epic about three pony adventurers who had taken a quest to collect a series of magical artefacts, one of which was part of the dragon’s shrine. During the fight for it, they exposed the truth of the dragon. Eventually, one of the ponies, Tower Runner, convinced the dragon that guarding a shrine for her wouldn’t have been what Dominion would have wanted. And so, they convinced the dragon to relinquish the relic to them, but also to travel with them on their journey.Drillbit smiled a bit as he began to see the similarities, wooing a steel beast from being their enemy to their friend. In that way, he could link Brave to Tower Runner. He was still smiling at thought when the doctor came over to lay Brave down again.“Alright, back to rest. Those potions take a while to work.”It was only on hearing those words that Drillbit realised how tired he was. He knew he should have asleep then, he’d even finished his working day before all this went down. But despite the fatigue of his body, his curiosity was wheeling too fast with to be able to seek rest. So much to take in, it was dizzying! But for all the information he was bombarded with, there was more following in its wake, each with its own terminology. But one alone was chewing at him above all else:“The sky,” he said, “Is it always like that? So blue and up, I mean.”The doctor put down the tray of utensils she was carrying and turned to gave him the most incredulous stare.“And just what hole in the ground did you come crawling out of?” she asked.“106, ma’am,” Drillbit answered, missing the fact it was a rhetorical question entirely. However, this answer did go a long way to making Drillbit’s ignorance more reasonable in the doctor’s eye.“Huh. So ol’ 106 finally cracked the seal and decided to poke their noses about outside, did they?”“Not really,” Drillbit replied, shuffling awkwardly, “Some ponies- the Veterans, actually- they broke in and we chased them outside before the door locked again.”This was a lead-in to the most awkward silence yet and was only broke by a small “oh” from the doctor, who turn it was to look awkward. In the wasteland the loss of one’s home was never a light topic. Eventually she shrugged it off.“Not always. Sometimes the wind blows a certain direction and the cloud cover blows in from the main land. We get massive downpours when that happens. But the Enclave eventually notice and try to reel it back in. Seems we’re too far south-easterly to be considered part of their territory.”There it was again, more terms he didn’t know: cloud cover, Enclave. He suddenly felt like he could be at this forever, questioning a world that couldn’t fully be comprehended.
Veradon Chimera- Colt/Filly
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
New update.
Not sure how effective, Brave's sentiment is in the second half of this. I tried to capture his confusion, but I think even the resolution is confusing too. Bah, I'll come back to it.
- Chapter 2, Snippet 6:
- Still, the answer itself he wasn’t sure what to make of. Up, up, up, unhindered by limits. It was just too much. He wanted away from this world in all directions.“What about you?” the doctor asked with a concerned tone, “Is there any way you can get back in. Or do you want to head back?”This gave Drillbit pause for thought. Yes, he wanted away from all of this, but... he didn’t just want to just back crawl back into the Stable and just forget about either.So... what did he want?A shout from outside cut this inflection short. Turning towards the window, he quickly saw what the commotion was. Nearly directly outside the shop, an earth pony mare lay on her side frozen with fear. The subject of this look, standing above her and with his back to the doctor’s clinic, was the raider with a meat cleaver. Though he couldn’t see the raider’s face, his tense posture conveyed his attitude just as well. This was a pony who was furious.“You little bitch!” His voice went right through. “Think you’d steal my fucking sweet roll, do you?”Drillbit froze. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing! This mare was being attacked, threatened in the street with everypony watching! They had all stopped and were just watching...It took Drillbit a second to realise he was doing the exact same thing. Even when he realised, his legs wouldn’t move. They just stayed planted even as the raider continued to brandish the cleaver over the terrified mare.“Poor girl,” the doctor said, though she didn’t make a move to help either. That was all she would offer: sentiment. Why? Why couldn’t he help? Surely somepony there knew her, so why wouldn’t anypony help?With the two ponies watching the event outside, everything was silent in there. But not all was still in there. It was only when he heard the door open that Drillbit looked around, but he only got a glimpse of orange hindquarters as the door closed on them.Outside, things came to a head when the raider finalised his rant. He raised the cleaver in his teeth and the mare’s eyes widened as it then descended towards her flesh.Brave’s sword intercepted it before it got there.(XXXXXX)Brave had time to think while he waited for that healing potion to patch him up. And as he lay there, he came to realise one astounding truth: he had no idea what he was doing.He’d gotten out, he finally done. His mother first, then his sister, they’d both opposed him but he beaten them and now he was outside. The only question remaining was... now what?He’d never really thought this far. The moment, the dream, was stepping out the Stable door, but beyond that was a blank canvas. He’d no idea of the world past that was like, that was Future Brave’s problem.But now Future Brave was at a loose end. He’d gotten out only to find the world much more expansive than he though. It was daunting, so much so that Drillbit had secluded himself back in the tank when he saw it. But just because he didn’t shy away from it, didn’t make Brave any less intimidated. So wide a world, where did you even start? A fleeting thought even suggested to him that it would be easier not to start...But if he’d come up there and done absolutely nothing, lost himself amongst the vastness of the landscape, than all those naysayers back in the Stable might as well have been right: he’d come up here to die. And he’d hate for them to be right.Besides, he’d brought Drillbit out into this world. He’d pressed and assured the little pony through his doubt, so like hell he was going to abandon him. Drillbit and Brave: the best years of his life could be encompassed in those three words. Together they could do anything, oppose any foe, overcome any obstacle!Yes, he had no idea what he was doing, which meant that the possibilities were endless! Suddenly, from there it was easy.That was why he’d gotten up, walked out of the clinic and deflected the blow of a blade. That was why he was now staring down an angry raider’s glare.“What? You looking to die, dipshit?” the raider asked, “Fine. Look like I’ll be having shoulder roast tonight.” He raised the cleaver once more.He followed his gut, not for standing up for what was right but for opposing what he thought was wrong. That gave him and Drillbit had a reason for coming out here. They weren’t here to die; they were here to do what he had always done. As far as cared, the Veterans and the Council could have just been Overmare on a larger scale. Let them stand in his way! Drillbit was counting on him, and he Drillbit. He had all he needed!As cleaver descended, Brave ducked to the side and brought the sword to meet it, tonguing the trigger as he did. The blade lit up for just a second, just long enough for it to cut through his opponent’s blade, right at the handle. The raiders stumbled back, this time his eyes wide with fear as he realised all he had left in his mouth was a useless plastic handle. But Brave wasn’t done yet. His renewed drive put his on a high and he felt he could do anything!“Do I look like a chump to you!?” he roared as he swung his head around, smashing the flat of the blade across the raider’s head. The impact rang through the air and the pony gave immediately, crumpling into a heap.The street stared on in silent shock.
Not sure how effective, Brave's sentiment is in the second half of this. I tried to capture his confusion, but I think even the resolution is confusing too. Bah, I'll come back to it.
Veradon Chimera- Colt/Filly
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Re: Fallout: Equestria - To The Heavens
New update
- Chapter 2, Snippet 7:
- Amidst this, the mare who’d been moments away from being dismembered stared up at Brave. She looked like she couldn’t wrap her head around her own luck: a strong, handsome stallion stepping in to save her life. For a moment she wondered if this wasn’t a dream, a memory her head was forging because she was already dead.“Go. Get out of here.”The spell was shattered the moment Brave said that. Getting up, she grabbed the sweet roll which had been the cause of all this and ran. She was glad to be getting out of there just as the raiders started to recover themselves and began firing.Brave saw the sniper pony look before he started fumbling the rifle‘s in his direction. By the time he pulled the trigger Brave was already running and the bullet went wide. But this was the prompt for the rest of the raiders to start reading their guns too. In a few seconds Brave was going to be blasted apart by over half a dozen angry raiders.Good. If that was the way things were going, then so be it. He needed this. He needed to do something, to have a huge obstacle standing in front of him! And if he couldn’t find one he’d create one. That was his life, to strive against something, to not stop and to keep on opposing the difficult. Because if he did stop, he wasn’t sure if he could start again. The only thing he could do from there would be to settle down and to settle down would be to no different than waiting to die and there was no way he was going to just give up and die!That was it. His immediate goal was to find a longer term goal, one which could get him to his next greater goal. Everything else was secondary.Turning to a stallion who was walking out from under nearby patio, drawing a shotgun as he did, Brave made a split-second decision. He didn’t even think as he broke into a gallop towards the pony before he could adjust the gun’s hold in his mouth. This was just a longshot plan that he didn’t have think to second guess. It particially worked to his favour however, as the raider’s eyes went wide at the charging pony and in his panic he faltered with the gun. With this second, Brave closed the distance and leapt, trampling over the other pony’s face as he made his way onto his back and from there used him as a launch pad up onto the patio roof.He hadn’t a second to spare; the moment his hoofs touched wood, all around him lit up with sound and lead. It was only him hurling himself over the roof’s peak that saved him. For about a breath’s length he was safe.Now with a moment to think, he suddenly realised he may have not made the best decision in riling up half a dozen raiders. Oh well, only thing that mattered now was fixing this mess. But the fact was that the first thing he thought of was the tank. Oh that thing was going to make him lazy, especially if it became his default fallback. But, he thought as buckshot tore through wood about a metre from his head, he wasn’t really spoiled for time or choice right now.And he needed help with that.As the gunfire died down, the raiders replaced it with lots of shouting, all asking if anyony’d got him although no one had an answer. Still if he wanted Drillbit to get a message, now was the moment.“Drill, go get Fredrica and show these bastard why they shouldn’t mess with us!” He only worried for a moment that Drillbit would recognise who Fredrica was before the resumed gunfire mired him in his own situation. He crawled down the roof a bit as the bullets began chewing through the peak he had hid behind.Alright, now he just had to survive. Because he couldn’t die, Drillbit was relying on him to much for him to do that. Survive and find them a goal... He had to be able to do that at least at least. He couldn’t died on his first day outside.With breath despite the hell around him, he steeled himself, determined to prove to everyone that he was no chump.“What the fuck?!”The unfamiliar roar cut through the sound of gunfire right before it stopped dead. Though shaken by the blow to his resolve right after working up the courage, Brave found he was annoyed by the reprieve. Curious as to who this killjoy was, he lifted himself up to peer over the roof at his ‘savior’ and saw was another raider pony standing at the top of the town hall’s steps. Murky green in colour and hiding his mane with a stupid tricorn hat, he was weighed down on each side by a massive lance, both attached to a battle saddle. Though Brave did have to admit, those were some impressive shades.“Why is everypony shooting up my town? It just takes one pony to put a bullet in a problem.”“But, Bladeworks-!” The mare was immediately cut short by one of the lances perking up and pointing at her, humming ominously as it did so. “I-I mean Sir, he’s quick. He managed to get up onto the roof before any of us got a shot off.”Bladeworks looked up and for a moment his and Brave’s eyes meet across the town. It was only for a second, but long enough for Brave to struck by a single thing: he was bored. What the hell? You weren’t allowed to be bored with a threat. That only lead to you underestimating them and then you were practically asking them to give you a good trashing. What an idiot!As he was wrapped up in this thought, he almost missed when one of the lances pointed up at him. Only the hum grabbed his attention before the entire length of it pulsed with light.Oh, that was not good.Brave had barely heaved himself up and away when the entire section that had been shielding him suddenly vapourised, chewed through by a blinding cloud of light and heat.“There. Dealt with,” Bladeworks said, “Honestly, if only one of you was a good shot...”Brave pressed himself down but grinned all the while. Alright they thought he was dead, that gave him the element of surprise.“No, no! Look sir! He’s still up there!”Or maybe not. Another hum and he barely hurled his way out of a second blast. He wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever, eventually the prick would get lucky. He’d have to deal with him before that: face him head on.Leaping out of the smoke of the blast, he landed running. Sprinting up the rooftops towards the town hall where Bladeworks fired from. The raiders on the street started fire on him and bullets whizzing around him, but he ignored them in favor of his target.His goal. For now, Bladeworks was his goal. To beat a lesson into this pony who’d thought he wasn’t a threat. To show this vast world that he wasn’t a chump.Another blast carved a scoop out of the roof behind him and he felt the heat licking at his tail. Then there was a shout and the raider’s gunfire lightened before stopping. A quick glance revealed that Drillbit had arrived, clad in several dozen tons of raider-scaring steel. Brave couldn’t help the mad grin, pleased that he had Bladeworks to himself, no interruptions.Another blast, this one not directed at him but at Fredrica. His heart raced at his heart race and he pressed himself for another burst of speed. He reached the end of a row of houses and leapt, kicking off the edge of the roof and hurling himself towards the raider leader. The moment brought Bladework’s attention away from the tank and Brave took some satisfaction as lines of distress creased onto Bladeworks’ face as he saw him.Tonguing the trigger, the blade lit up with energy as he swung his neck and brought the sword down on his opponent. Bladeworks barely had enough time to raise the two lances in a cross in front of him, catching Brave’s blow and stopping it dead.“Damnit!” Bladeworks growled. He looked like he couldn’t believe what was happening. “Damnit, damnit, damnit! What the hell?! You guys just decide to grow some balls now just when I’ve got a town of my own?”He shunted Brave, pressing on him. But Brave held the lock and shuntted back, aware that allowing the other pony any bit of distance would give him the advantage.“What do’ya mean? I’ve always had these. Not sure I’d be here if I didn’t.” Brave smirked around the hilt at him. “As for they why , you just remind me of a type of pony that’s always pissed me off.”This appeared to threw Bladeworks for loop. “Wait, are you not from the Council?” He sounded like he didn’t want to hear the answer to this.Brave knew this was probably a bad idea, but Brave made a show of raising his eyebrow before he answered.“Council? Who they hell are they?”Together they stood for a brief moment where this sank in. Only then did shock turned to furious rage and with a burst of strength, Bladeworks surged forward.
Veradon Chimera- Colt/Filly
- Posts : 24
Brohoof! : 1
Join date : 2014-03-31
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