After what I can assume was hours of deep dreamless sleeping I awoke with two big blue eyes staring at me. Whatever the thing was it seemed startled when I woke up. It probably thought I was out cold or dead, honestly with a face like mine either was a valid option. For about a minute we just sat there, staring at each other, not moving, not speaking not even blinking. I guess the creature was still registering that I was aware of its presence. Finally though the thing let out a high pitched whimper and quickly backed off curling up, and quivering slightly.
Getting a better look at this thing, I found myself looking at something like a small horse, a very strange small horse. It was a shade of yellow you couldn’t have found in the wastes, calming and bright. Its mane was a rather light shade of pink. It was a lot smaller than any horse I had ever seen, only about the size of a large dog. On it back were what looked to be feathered wings that appeared too small to support something that big, and on its rear end was the image of three little pink butterflies. It had to be the strangest looking animal I had ever seen.
“P-please, w-whatever you are, don’t hurt me.” The thing actually spoke, and sounded terrified.
“You can talk?” honestly I couldn’t think of anything better to say. In D.C. animals rarely go about their business when they notice you, let alone talk. The creature didn’t respond though, so I tried a different method, “Hey kid, I ain’t gonna hurt you.” Still no response, but the creature did seem to tremble less, “Alright kid, don’t talk to me, but know this: I ain’t leaving until you do.”
That seemed to do the trick, because after I said that the creature looked up and asked, rather cautiously, “W-what are you?”
Normally, when people ask me what I am they say something along the lines of “What the fuck are you zombie-boy?” or “You are one ugly motherfucker.” so this politeness took me off guard.
Unable to think of anything better to say, I quickly responded, “S’matter kid? Never seen a ghoul before?” I already knew the answer before I asked. This sim was pre-war, so it was pre-ghoul too.
“n-no, w-what’s a g-ghoul?” It, or rather she asked.
“Well kid, a ghoul is what happened to the ‘lucky’ ones of us that were outside when the commies started dropping bombs. We got blasted with radiation, and instead of dying, we turned into these things.”
“W-well Mr. Ghoul, I-”
“Hey kid,” I cut her off, “can it with that ‘Mr. Ghoul’ crap. The name’s Charles kid, but you can just call me Chunk, everyone else did.”
“Well then ‘Chunk’, I don’t know where you’re from, but I’ve never heard of the ‘commies’ or any bombs.” She seemed less scared now and more curious “where exactly are you from?”
“The U.S. of A, greatest country ever leveled, and as of late, the only country in existence.” I felt I said that a bit too optimistically.
“I can assure you sir, I’ve never heard of Youessofay, and I can guarantee that this country still exists.” She corrected.
“Well, that’s because I ain’t from here kid, and where I’m from the U.S. is the last country on earth.”
“Where exactly are you from then sir?” she asked, clearly puzzled by what I had said.
“Somewhere different kid, and that’s all you need to know.”
After that, I began explaining what I remembered about the war; China invading Alaska (I Had to stop and explain what China and Alaska were), The U.S. annexing Canada (had to explain that one too), and the VaultTec program, and finally the day the whole world got wiped clean in a big nuclear explosion. The whole time she seemed both intrigued and horrified at what I was saying, I think the worst reaction I got though was when I had to explain what happened to the wildlife after the explosion. What was left was easy enough for her to handle, what didn’t remain wasn’t. Every animal she asked about; birds, squirrels, mice, fish, just seemed to make her more and more terrified. When she asked about bunnies though, man she was a wreck. She stayed quiet for a long time after hearing that rabbits were extinct.
“Listen kid, I’m sorry about your rabbits, I really am, but you ain’t from where I’m from, they’re still here so I don’t see what the big deal is.” I probably could have said that nicer, but I couldn’t see another way to get her to talk.
“Don’t call me ‘kid’” She sounded a lot angrier that I thought she would, “my name is Fluttershy.”
“Well then, Fluttershy” I had to focus to keep from laughing at her name, “I’m sorry about your rabbits, but you don’t need to get snippy”
“They aren’t my rabbits, they were yours, and you just blew them up. You didn’t care about them, or the birds, or the fish. You just blew them all up.” Her voice was wavering and it sounded almost like she was either going to burst into tears or start screaming at me.
“We blew ourselves up too, you know, a lot of little politicians with big sticks finally started swinging, and the whole damn world got hit because of it.”
“Chunk…” she said, calm returning to her voice, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get mad at you.”
“It’s no trouble kid, people treat me bad all the time, I’ve been through a lot worse,” I said remembering the wasteland, “a lot worse.”
After that little spat Fluttershy offered to take me to her hometown, some little village called “Ponyville”. Realizing how hungry I was, I had no objection going with her. And as soon as we started in the direction of her home I was blinded by white. The whole place seemed so real I had almost forgotten that this was just a simulation.