Fallout Equestria: Influx

Prologue

Fallout Equestria: Influx

Prologue

My name is Crystal. I’m twenty six year old, and a crystal pony from the Crystal Empire. Sadly, I have never had the sparkle of a crystal pony, since my ill health has kept me in a state of depression which has left my pink coat and yellow mane dull and gloomy. 

When I was born, they said I had a weak heart and needed several operations before I could even be taken home by my parents. It left me in a state of constant pain as I could feel my heart beating with irregular patterns as it tried to keep working. I could never go out and play with other foals or do anything that would make me exert myself as it would put too much stress on my heart. You can say I had a bad foalhood. 

A weak heart was only the start of my problems as I was also getting infected with basic and curable illnesses on an almost regular basis. A doctor told my parents and I that I had a weak immune system which meant I could easily contract illnesses from viruses and bacteria that a normal healthy filly wouldn’t suffer from. Thankfully, most of them were curable but meant a trip to the damn hospital each and every damn time. 

When I was five, my parents moved down into Equestria so they could seek out better medical facilities to better support me. I had contracted the flu from somepony on the train down to Las Pegasus, which meant I spent the first day in our new home in the hospital. I didn’t like it for a while since I hated the sun and the heat, but after several years I grew used to the heat of the Marejave. It was definitely a change from the cold north.

When I was around eight years old and at school, I suffered a trip and tumbled down a short flight of stairs which was like what, um, five steps? Anyway the result was that I landed on my ass hard and that fall broke my hip. Again finding myself in a hospital to get treated it was discovered I had brittle bones, which meant a hard enough fall or impact like what I had in school would fracture or break my bones. 

My life was a complete and utter mess as I missed out in a lot of school, from spending time off sick to the fact that I couldn’t live like a normal filly. I couldn’t have friends over to play as I could probably either get sick from them, break a bone while playing with them, or drop dead with my heart giving out. I was a miserable filly in my youth. 

Things just wouldn’t work for me no matter what I was given or treated for. Then, the war broke out between the zebras and us. The war hit us hard, and my father was forced to give up his job to enlist. My mother would have been drafted too if she hadn't been required to care for me. She had to quit her job too as she needed to take care of me, and her job wouldn’t allow her to take much time off since the war was requiring a lot from many companies. My mother thought the newly built Fluttershy Hospital in Las Pegasus would finally be able to help me as the war was pushing for better medical care, and with Fluttershy, being the strong, compassionate pony that she was, may have had something to help. Unfortunately, the focus wasn’t on health problems like mine, but rather war related. Her hospital did give better medical care than the older General Hospital did, but it wasn’t enough though. I was still going in and out on a regular basis. 

I managed to finish school with some qualifications, not good ones mind you, but at least I got some when I was sixteen. I got a job in a warehouse, standing or sitting by a computer and processing parcels to be sent off to wherever they needed to go. It was thankfully not a job that needed much exertion, so it didn’t put pressure on my weak heart or my brittle bones. I was able to at least earn a wage. I even made a couple of friends there who didn’t think of me as a freak for my medical conditions. I actually felt happy for a short time in my job as I could experience a normalish life for a change, but of course, that didn’t last. Being a warehouse, the place was dusty. It was so dusty in fact, that some boxes that have sat on the shelf for a long time were nearly black. The dust I was breathing in soon began to affect my breathing, making it hard for me to breathe properly. I stupidly didn’t complain about my breathing until I collapsed from lack of breath one day, after eight months of working there. Unfortunately, I had to resign as I couldn’t work in that sort of environment anymore, which put me into another depression.