Fallout: Equestria - Rising Dawn

Chapter 6 - Six Thousand

Chapter 6

Six Thousand

"Somewhere in this wasteland, there was hope."

My heart pounded inside my chest. I lost sight of the tower as I crawled out of that dreary, slummy shanty town, its light disappearing behind Poneva's broken skyscrapers. I clambered over a mound of frozen debris, my hooves scrambling for purchase. Chunks of rubbish fell away from my flailing limbs as I struggled to catch a glimpse of the skyscraper's amber glow once more.

"Come on, come on!" I muttered, throwing a hoof over the concrete mountain that was blocking my path. With a heave and a grunt, I yanked myself up and over and a shaft of orange light painted a smile across my face. There it was.

I stood upon my four legs atop the hill of snow and rubble, Dew Drops' scarf billowing behind me in the breeze. "Finally!" I gasped, grinning madly at the brightest light I had ever seen in the wasteland. I stared up at it, mouth open with awe. The last I had seen it, I was seven stories above the earth. But from down there ... I felt even smaller as I basked in its radiant glow like a curious, buzzing insect.

Never before had I seen something so bright. Never before had I seen anything so immense. I raised my head to the sky, trying to see the tower's peak. I couldn't. It might as well have been holding the sky aloft –

My head tipped forward.

"Son of a –"

I toppled over, tumbling end over end down the snowy embankment.

"BIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH -"

I punched a twelve inch deep outline into the snow, wincing at the dull pain in my ribs. I pushed myself to my haunches and found myself staring blankly into the headlights of an oncoming wagon.

My eyes widened as its lantern's glow hurtled closer and closer.

I was sitting in a damned intersection.

"Fuck!" I hissed, leaping out of the way as the wagon puller barreled past me.

I turned my head into oncoming traffic and my ears drooped.

"Fuck."

Headlights flashed in my eyes. Snow showered over me as I hurled myself away from another wagon.

I landed on my hooves. And sunk. It didn't even take a single heartbeat for another wagon to come plowing towards me. I tore my hooves out of the snow and sidestepped – feeling the rush of its frame slice through the air next to my cheek.

"FUCK!" I wheezed as I thrashed my legs desperately through the fetlock deep snow.

A horn blared at me, its groaning honk blaring closer and closer.

"YOU STUPID SHIT!" somebody shrieked as I cursed and leaped out of the way, my swear jar getting heavier by the second.

'Wow - I'm getting pretty good at this!' I thought, a wild grin stretching across my face as more headlights flashed across my face.

Then a wagon ran into my flank.

It clipped me like a bad haircut, hurling me off my hooves and slamming me into a guard rail. A mare screamed as the wagon careened into the railing and the sound of a box of nails crashing against a concrete wall erupted into my ears.

Then nothing. Just the sounds of ponies power-walking away and wagons rumbling past.

Not a single pony stopped to see if the wagon puller or myself was okay. I wasn't surprised. I lifted myself off the ground and limped across the snowy sidewalk with the wind knocked out of me as ponies hurried away.