DAY EIGHT
The Time of Your Life
gone with the blastwave
~~~
"Oh, stop fidgeting, dear!" the pink-maned mare said, nudging her husband with her muzzle.
"What? You can hardly blame me for being excited!" Lemon Frisk said. "Imagine the possibilities! It's a return to youth! The toys, the games... ooh, I'll get the chance to reread Daring Do!"
Blossom Tree sighed and shook her head. She couldn't help but smile, though. "It sounds like you're more excited about the toys and stories than you are about the baby itself."
Lemon Frisk gave her a sad look. "Am not!" His smile reappeared way too fast. "But I'm totally goin' to read her Daring Do!"
Blossom Tree laughed. It was a shrill sound that might've sounded annoying to some ponies, but Lemon Frisk couldn't help but like it. She raised an eyebrow. "Her? It could just as well be a colt, you know. A colt who might not even care about all those marely adventures."
"Come on. Everypony likes Daring Do."
"Back when we were kids, maybe. She's rather old, now," Blossom said, teasingly.
"Fictional characters don't age!" Lemon threw back. "Only their fans."
"Yes, well, for the first few months after this little one is born, all you'll be reading is Daring Do and the Crying Baby."
Lemon Frisk grinned. "Ohh. I can imagine her trying to handle that."
Blossom Tree mimicked his grin. She was quite used to her husband's antics. "Do tell!"
"By the end of the book," Lemon said, his grin getting even wider, "she flees into the wilderness, and hugs the first wild manticore she meets!"
He was rewarded by another shrill laugh. The other ponies in the doctor's waiting room were giving them odd looks. He honestly couldn't care less.
~~~
"Do you know you sleep with your eyes open?" Misty asked.
Lemon Frisk blinked, and the vision of the white waiting room was replaced with the bright blue of Misty Cloud's eyes.
"Good mornin' to you too," he said. All things considered, he didn't think this was a bad way of waking up. He had expected to get poked again.
"Good?" She sighed, and looked at the bedroom door. "Somehow, I keep ending up in this place. It's like I can't escape it."
"You're free to camp outside the Door. As I suggested yesterday evening."
Misty didn't reply. She just gave him a flat look, and poked him in the side. As she'd done the previous evening. Lemon Frisk grinned, successfully suppressing a yelp.
"So," he said, "what time is it?"
"Breakfast time," Misty answered with a smile.
Lemon Frisk once again abused his poor left eyebrow. "You woke me up for breakfast? I may have figured out I can sleep, but I still don't eat, you know."
"It's a family thing!" she said. "It's not just about the food."
"Says the mare who's trying to get the hell away from her family."
Misty's head slumped down. "You're still too good at that."
"Talking about family, I do hope you're intending to take your cousin up on his offer."
Misty rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm a poor shot, I panic when I get charged by a pack of ghouls, and I collapse the building I'm in when I panic. Did I miss anything?"
"No, that about sums it up," Lemon said, "though in all fairness, I'd imagine most ponies would display a certain degree of panic when they get charged by a pack of feral ghouls." He got up from the bed. "The collapsing thing worked, at least. Just, next time, there may not be a convenient swimming pool outside the window. Or a companion with Winter Gale's reflexes to push you into it."
Misty smiled, and opened the bedroom door. "Just get your leathery rump out here."
* * *
During breakfast, the conversation inevitably shifted to the events of the previous day. The exciting mission was the talk of the Stable, and Hailstorm and Moonstorm were quite interested in hearing how their daughter had fared in it.
"Wait. You tried to select it as weapon in S.A.T.S.?!" Lemon Frisk asked, giving her a baffled look. "The whole house?"
Misty Cloud took another bite from her apple, and nodded. "Mhm," she said. before taking the time to chew her food properly. She swallowed it, and continued her story. "Just like the rock. I just grabbed the whole thing with my magic, and targeted it at the ghouls."
Lemon Frisk laughed. "So it didn't collapse!" he said. "It actually imploded!"
"Well, no. It gave me an error, which made me panic even more, and I just sort of ripped it all loose. I think I somehow even selected the charging ghoul as projectile, in the end."
Lemon shook his head and smiled. "I can't believe it accepted that."
"I don't think it did; that was around the time everything came crashing down. Winter Gale must've grabbed me and pulled me out the window. Next thing I knew, I was coughing up green sludge."
"Sounds like the three of you had quite the adventure," Moonstorm said.
Lemon Frisk nodded. "Not exactly the way I'd prefer to get it done, mind you. If I'd been able to take them out from behind as we'd planned, this might've gone quite differently. And then there's that blue glow..." He shook his head. "I don't know what to make of that. Never heard of anything like it."
Misty frowned. "What do you mean? The Shard also glowed like that. I saw it in the distance."
Lemon nodded. "That's the thing. The balefire that destroyed Equestria was green. When we got out of the Stable, and looked in the direction of any major city, we saw a green glow. All magical radiation you find in the wastelands is green. I never even heard of blue radiation before I saw the Shard, and now it's here again." He sighed, and shook his head.
Misty shrugged. "Still, to us non-ghouls, I expect the colour doesn't change the basic fact we should stay the hell away from it, right?"
Lemon blinked. "Oh. Yeah, obviously."
"So, what's the escape plan for today?" Hailstorm asked, grinning.
Misty shot her dad a dirty look. "I'm getting lessons at the firing range. After that, uh, I dunno." She looked at Lemon Frisk.
Lemon frowned. "I think I'd like to go back to the base. I never got to visit my friends' graves, after all."
"It's really that important to you, huh?" Misty asked.
Lemon hesitated. "I... I dunno, okay? Everything I knew is gone. I just want to see what's left. At least the dead should still be there."
"That's pretty morbid," Misty said, raising an eyebrow.
Lemon cracked a smile. "...she said to the ghoul."
Misty rolled her eyes, and stood up from the table. "I'm done. Let's get to the firing range."
* * *
"Hi," Winter Gale greeted them as they walked into the armoury. He gave them an unusually confident smirk. "I found something neat in the maneframe."
Lemon Frisk and Misty Cloud followed him into the room labelled "Shooting Range". The room was mostly just a long corridor, with metal curtains covering the actual firing lanes that were at one side of the corridor.
Winter pushed a button, and the curtains rolled up, making surprisingly little noise as they did so. Behind them, at the end of each lane, they could see cardboard cutouts with prints of slightly cartoony looking ponies with rotted faces and cracked open skulls.
"What do you think?" he asked, beaming. "Freshly printed!"
Misty peered intently at the cardboard cutouts. "Ghouls?"
Lemon Frisk shook his head. "This is pre-war. Good old-fashioned gnaw-your-skull-and-eat-your-brains zombies."
Misty frowned, and shook her head. "You know, I never got that, really," she said.
Lemon Frisk raised his eyebrow. "What?"
"Well, zombies," she said. "The traditional zombie plague concept. It just doesn't make sense."
Lemon gave her an amused smile. "Do tell."
"Right," Misty started. "So, zombies eat brains, right?"
"Uhuh."
"And... their victims become zombies too, right?"
"That's how it's told, yes."
"And, nothing really kills a zombie, except blowing its brains out."
Lemon nodded. "Or smashing them with a shovel, or something."
"Yes," Misty said, looking at the cardboard cutouts. "Hooves, legs, chest, their entire back side... you can blow it all off and they'll still keep coming. It has to be the head. More specifically, the brain."
She looked at Lemon Frisk again. "So if zombies need their brain mostly-intact, how can their brain-eaten victims still become zombies?"
Lemon Frisk blinked. "Huh. I never thought about that."
"That's the whole problem, see," Misty said, shaking her head. "No one really does. The whole premise is silly, if you just think about it for a minute."
"Well, in some stories ponies just get bitten and become zombies," Lemon said.
"Well yeah, but that's the zombie plague as disease thing," Misty said, rolling her eyes. "Traditionally it's more of a curse thing. You know, necromantic stuff."
"Um, excuse me..." Winter Gale said. The whole conversation had clearly ruined his previous confidence at finding a somewhat topical set of targets. "Weren't you going to, um, shoot them?"
Misty gave him an apologetic smile. "Ahh, I knew we were forgetting something. Sorry."
Winter Gale let out a weary sigh, but he seemed determined to get on with his lesson. If he was going to train a new Security Corps he'd have to do this more often anyway, so dealing with these two would clearly make a good test run.
"First of all," he said, "despite what many ponies seem to think, S.A.T.S. does not improve your aim. It only boosts your reaction speed." He walked over to the weapons locker, grabbed one of the mouth guns and put it on the firing lane table before Misty. "If you can't hit the broad side of the Stable Door, no amount of time stretching magic will help you. Because of that, we're not using S.A.T.S. in this training."
Lemon Frisk nodded. He remembered his own S.A.T.S. introduction during his military training, and it'd been about the same.
"However," Winter Gale said, looking at Misty, "it can help you calm down in situations where everything goes too fast. If you feel you're going to panic, use it, even if it's not for firing at enemies. It may save your life."
He walked back to the weapons locker, and retrieved a gun for Lemon. "Keep in mind though, S.A.T.S. needs to recharge after every use, which takes a while. It may be better to keep it for life or death situations."
"That's kind of... contradictory," Misty said.
Lemon Frisk smiled at her. "Well, you've seen how it goes. The first casualty in any battle is the battle plan. The main thing to remember is, well, that it's there, basically. That you got the option to use it. Better to use it and survive, than to try keeping it for a life or death situation without realising you're already in one."
Winter Gale looked at Lemon Frisk's pipbuck. "Does your S.A.T.S. still work?"
"Not as far as I know," the ghoul replied, glancing down at the pipbuck embedded in his leg. "I mean, it may, but the controls for actually using it are all messed up."
"I see," Winter Gale said. "Well, maybe we should drop in at Nimblegait's office, see if she can take a look at it."
"Wouldn't count on it," Lemon Frisk said. "The technicians at Stable One said it was melted too far in. There's not enough space to replace the monitor."
"Ah, well." Winter Gale looked back at the zombie cut-outs. "Anyway, let's get to the actual practice." He looked at Misty. "Now, this may seem odd to you, but we're going to start without magic. Out there, I can all too easily imagine unicorns getting magic exhaustion, and in that case, you really want to have something to fall back on."
Misty groaned. Like most unicorns, she disliked doing things by mouth which she could just do with magic. "Seriously?" she asked. "So I have to learn this all twice?"
"Remember the ghouls?" Winter Gale asked. "You lost your gun because you didn't expect the kick it would give. There's no better way to teach you what kind of force to expect than to feel it on your body."
Misty nodded. "All right then." She levitated the gun into her mouth, disabled the safety, and aimed at the target.
"Hold it," Winter Gale interrupted. "That's the perfect way to get a whiplash. Regularly firing a mouth gun trains the neck muscles against the impact. Someone without experience and training should brace for impact. Spread your legs slightly, lower your head... right. The gun's padding will absorb the shock a bit, but that just means it gets spread out more evenly. In the end, it's still your head that gets it."
Lemon Frisk nodded. "My old instructor said to treat it as if you're wearing a helmet, and getting a sledgehammer to the jaw. It won't hurt too much, because you got a helmet, and it's a mighty fine helmet, but that won't take away the fact it's a sledgehammer. It's just a lot of force, y'know?"
Misty floated the gun out of her mouth. "...you guys are just trying to scare me, aren't you?" she asked. She looked pretty nervous all of the sudden.
"You're the psychologist," Lemon Frisk said. "You figure it out."
"Right," Misty said, eyeing the paper cutout of the zombie somewhat anxiously. "Worse than what I'm expecting, but probably not that bad."
"But don't count on the 'not that bad'," Lemon Frisk added, smirking.
"Yes, yes, I know," Misty said. She sighed, bit down on the gun once more, and pulled the trigger with her tongue.
*Blam*
The shot didn't even get close to the paper zombie. Misty spat out the gun, and massaged her jaw with a hoof.
"Ow. I almost swallowed the damned thing."
Winter Gale blinked. "Right. Um. Biting down really well is kinda essential, too," he said, looking somewhat unsure. "I guess I should've, uh, said that."
* * *
It was nearing noon by the time Misty Cloud started to get the hang of it. Lemon Frisk had put away his weapon pretty quickly; all he really wanted to do was brush up his old military training. Thanks to his recent trips down memory lane, this took surprisingly little work.
"Right, that's it," Misty said. She switched on the gun's safety with her magic, and put the weapon on the table. "I'm taking a noon break, now I'm sure I can still chew."
"You'll get used to it," Winter Gale said.
"Fat chance," Misty said as she walked out of the firing range. "Out there, I'll be using my magic."
Lemon Frisk followed her outside. "Well, you did pretty well for a first time."
Misty just nodded. "Uhuh. Now it's just the panicking and throwing houses around issue then, hm?"
Lemon Frisk laughed. "A little confidence with weapons might actually help with that, you know."
"Um...."
The pair stopped when they heard a familiar voice behind them. They turned around to see Winter Gale, once again.
"Misty?" he asked. "Could we, uh... talk?"
Misty frowned. "Can't this wait until we're back at the range?"
Winter Gale stared at the floor, and shook his head.
Lemon Frisk rolled his eyes. "Misty, he's asking you to do your bloody job. So go make yourself useful."
"Oh! Right," Misty said. She followed Winter Gale, presumably to wherever her old practice was.
Lemon Frisk shook his head. For a psychologist, she could be quite bad at reading people...
* * *
Once again wandering through the Stable on his own, Lemon Frisk somehow found himself at the school again. The foals apparently just got to their noon break, and rushed out into the play ground around the school.
"You did it!" a shrill voice yelled. Lemon Frisk smiled as he saw Fog Light running towards him.
"Hey there, squirt," he said. "How's school?"
"Who cares?" the colt said, grinning. "You really did it! You killed the zombie ponies! Now they won't eat other ponies anymore! Yaay!" He looked at the other foals, who were getting over their initial fear, and were slowly surrounding the ghoul. "I told you he'd pull it off!" Fog Light said, beaming.
"Well, actually, Winter Gale helped a lot, too," Lemon Frisk started, before the hyperactive colt interrupted him again.
"So! How'd you do it?" He grinned at one of the classmates standing beside him. "I bet he bit their heads off!" he said, clearly enjoying the disgusted look on the filly's face.
Lemon Frisk's ears drooped down, and he grinned uncomfortably. "Biting heads off? Oh no, I don't do that!" he said, slowly backing up.
"Sure you do!" Fog Light said, beaming. "You're an earth pony! You do all kinds of stuff with your mouth!"
"Woooah, that's so cool!" a filly standing behind Lemon said. The ghoul yelped in surprise and stopped backing away. He noticed the foals had him completely surrounded, and threw a desperate look at Hailstorm, who was leaning against the door frame of the school entrance, apparently enjoying the show.
"Hailstorm?" Lemon called out to him. "Help?"
The red stallion chucked, and walked towards the foals. "All right now, children, give the poor stallion some breathing space."
"He don't need to breathe!" Fog Light said without missing a beat. "He's a zombie!"
"I'm a ghoul, actually," Lemon Frisk said.
Fog Light looked back at Lemon Frisk, expectantly. "Aaand...?" he said.
Lemon Frisk sighed, and his head slumped down. "And I don't need to breathe," he grumbled.
"I knew it!" the colt said, a serious look on his face.
Hailstorm gave Fog Light a flat look. "Kids... scram," he said.
The foals muttered some barely audible complaints, but immediately slunk away to the playground.
"Wow," Lemon Frisk said, clearly impressed. "That's modern teaching?"
"No, that's training," Hailstorm replied, smirking. "There are a few words I use that have very specific meanings, and they know them. 'Scram' means, 'adults need to talk, get out or those adults will include your parents'."
Lemon glanced at the kids, who were starting their usual playground games now. "Looks like you got them well-trained."
"That's half of the job," Hailstorm said. "So, how'd things go with Winter Gale?"
"Well, the training went fine. He's off to talk with Misty now. Poor guy clearly needed it. I'm surprised Misty didn't go to him sooner, actually."
Hailstorm nodded. "Those two... they've always been close, but that also means she kinda stops being a psychologist around him, you know? Hanging out with her cousin has always been a bit of a break from her work."
"Weird," Lemon Frisk said. "There's no way I could just turn off my special talent like that. I sure hope she doesn't stop acting like a psychologist around me."
"You don't need a psychologist, Lemon Frisk," Hailstorm remarked. "You just need a friend."
He walked back to the school, and glanced back to Lemon Frisk. "And I think she knows that."
* * *
Misty and Winter Gale weren't at the firing range when he returned. He hadn't really expected them to be, but had decided it'd be better to check anyway. Seeing as it was barely past noon, Lemon Frisk had no idea where to go.
In the end, he decided to check on Vector Field's progress in organising the expedition to meet up with Capsworth and Spray Paint.
As it turned out, he had had very little success getting ponies interested in the whole affair, and the fact they didn't have any security ponies to spare didn't help matters much.
"You have to help me, Lemon Frisk!" the desperate Overstallion wailed. "They simply don't seem to care about anything I say! Maybe if you could talk to them, you could change their minds!"
Lemon Frisk frowned. "I don't exactly have looks that inspire confidence, you know."
"Nonsense!" Vector said. "You brought Misty back! You clearly gained her confidence."
"Actually, she chucked a bottle at my head the moment she saw me," Lemon Frisk said dryly. "And the only reason she didn't do worse was because she didn't have a gun."
"But the Stable knows you! You're the big hero!"
"I'm no hero," Lemon Frisk said. "All I did was give you guys a book."
"Well, I've been reading it," Vector Field said. "And it doesn't seem like there are too many ponies out there that would have the decency to do even that!" He frowned. "Do those Steel Rangers really wipe out entire Stables for their tech?"
"I haven't run into them personally, but I guess they do," Lemon Frisk replied. "Last I saw, they were valiant defenders of Equestria, but that was two centuries ago."
"Scary. What should we do if they come here?"
Lemon Frisk shrugged. "Lock the door, and pray to whoever or whatever you believe in that they don't have the equipment to get through it."
Vector Field gave him an unsure look. "That's... not very comforting."
"You could always radio for help," Lemon suggested. "You never know; someone may just be crazy enough to take on a group of ponies in power armour."
Vector gave him a dry look. "Like what? Some wandering heroic Stable Security pony? Somehow, I can't see that happening."
Lemon shrugged. "Crazier things have been known to happen. So, Vector Field... how does one become Overstallion here? It's clearly not a hereditary role, or you'd have a weather name. But for an elected figure, you sure don't seem to get much respect."
"It is hereditary, actually," Vector Field said, shaking his head sadly. "But when the WRD started taking over the Stable's decisions, my father decided to name me after mother's side of the family, as a sort of protest against the fact his role was becoming so ceremonial."
Lemon Frisk nodded. "And as a result, you're the first Overstallion without a reference to Summer Rain's name. I imagine that doesn't help."
"Indeed, it doesn't. Which is why I'd be grateful if you'd help me out here."
"Well, now you brought up the safety issue... I'm not sure if it's a good idea to go out there without proper protection."
"What if you came along?" Vector Field suggested. "You survived a direct hit from a sniper rifle!"
"Well, I was planning to go into the city, and visit the graves at the Military base, actually."
"But... there's not actually a time limit on that, is there?" The Overstallion gave him an unsure, somewhat pleading look. "I really want to meet these traders while they're still there!"
Lemon Frisk sighed. He'd seen this coming a mile away, but there didn't seem to be much he could do about it. "Look, Vector... can I call you Vector?" The Overstallion nodded. "See," Lemon continued, "if I go along, I'll just somehow end up being the de facto leader, and you'll just be somepony tagging along. This isn't the way to do this. You need to take control."
"How about you tag along as security detail?" Vector asked. "Local guide, so to speak. You know the way, and the wildlife. And the non-wildlife threats."
Lemon Frisk groaned. "Ugh. Mark my words, Vector, this won't solve a damned thing." He glanced down the corridor that led towards the Door, and then back to Vector Field. "But I'll consider it. After I talk with Misty."
Vector gave him a pensive look. "What's with you two, anyway? From what I heard, you two aren't actually a couple, but you are sleeping together."
"Um... that's actually just sleeping together, you know. Nothing else."
"Regardless," Vector said with a dismissive wave of his hoof, "it may be handy for you two to get a place of your own. We still got some free homes, and it's about time Misty moved out of her parents' place."
Lemon Frisk frowned. "You, um, do realise she's not planning on staying, right?"
Vector Field nodded. "What is she doing now?"
"Talking with Winter Gale. He needed it, badly."
Vector smirked. "Taking up her old job."
"Still, she's planning on leaving," Lemon said. He wasn't too sure of himself now, though.
Vector shook his head. "Look, Misty's a grown pony; she can go if she wants. If the WRD couldn't stop her, I sure can't, either. But if you think about it, she's got a lot to come back to, here. I'm just offering you two a place to stay whenever you do come back." He smiled. "I may not have a lot to say around this place, but I can still do that."
Lemon Frisk looked at the Overstallion. Without the name to back it up, Vector Field clung to his title, and could come across as a bit desperate... but he knew the Stable. He knew his ponies, even though they practically ignored him.
The old ghoul nodded slowly. "I'll talk to Misty about it. And about the excursion."
"Thank you," Vector said, giving him a short nod. "I appreciate it."
* * *
When Lemon Frisk arrived at the 'Storm household, Misty still hadn't returned. Then again, neither had her parents; working hours simply weren't over yet. Since he didn't feel any particular desire to spook more ponies, or be the local curiosity, he just stayed there and waited.
~~~
"Daring Do, the Great Adventurer, had finally been driven over the edge! With a desperate wail, she fled the nursery, and didn't stop running until she was well into the wilderness. The wild manticore, completely baffled, looked at the sobbing pegasus that was desperately clinging to him. He patted the adventurer on the pith helmet, and, rather unsure what to do, growled: «There, there?»"
Lemon Frisk's storytelling hadn't had exactly the intended effect. Instead of enraptured by the story, his audience was fast asleep. Then again, he might have intended that after all. He could hear the distinctive sound of a suppressed snort of laughter behind him though, which almost negated that effect.
"Shh!" Lemon Frisk whispered. "He's finally asleep!"
"Sorry," Blossom Tree whispered back. "It seems I came back too late, huh? I missed it all."
Lemon Frisk quietly walked out of Lemonade Sparkle's bedroom, and softly closed the door behind him. He smiled at his wife. "You know, it's quite amazing how well that worked. Whenever he cries, I just wonder, what would Daring do?"
"And, once you figured that out?" Blossom asked.
"I tell it to the little tyke, and he shuts up and listens! It's amazing!"
"Hah!" Blossom said, making sure to keep her voice down. "I thought you'd read him the actual books. What happened to that idea?"
"Spit. Snot. A bit of vomit. And then he tried to grab the pages, probably to apply more spit to them, and possibly eat them. And then vomit that up, too, no doubt. So I thought, I can do this without the book. It's not like he'll remember the actual stories at this age."
Blossom Tree smiled. "Pity. They sounded amazing."
~~~
Misty looked at the ghoul standing in front of her door, a pensive look on her face. Normally, she'd just give him a poke to wake him up, but something about his face made her hesitate. He looked... happy, with a odd tinge of melancholy. And she wasn't really in a poking mood. The conversation with Winter Gale had obviously had some effect on her. The last thing she needed right now was Lemon Frisk yelling at her.
Then again, as she gave him a light kiss on the mouth, she expected he'd yell at her for that anyway.
What she had not expected, however, was the stallion suddenly leaning in, and taking the little stolen kiss to a whole new level.
After about half a minute, she pulled back, gasping. Lemon Frisk blinked, and looked at her.
"Misty?" he asked, looking somewhat dumbfounded. "Did you just..."
"Woah," Misty said. "You know, I expected worse. The taste, I mean."
"Did you just kiss me?"
"I could ask you the same thing," Misty said. She frowned. "Blossom Tree?"
Lemon Frisk looked away and nodded, his expression oddly mellow.
Misty couldn't help but smile. "Sorry. I just... wanted to try that. Didn't know you'd—"
Lemon Frisk shook his head, and smiled back. "It was... nice."
"Next time, though, don't forget I need to breathe," Misty remarked.
"Next time, maybe try when I'm actually conscious?" Lemon threw back.
Misty looked away. "Sorry."
"Also, Blossom Tree easily did a full minute," Lemon Frisk said, smiling slyly. "We timed it once."
"Seriously?" Misty looked up at him, blinking. She frowned. "Wait, did you just tell me to practice more... at kissing?"
"Maybe," Lemon Frisk said, turning back to the door. "Try it again when I'm conscious sometime, and find out. For now though, open the door, please?"
"Uh, right."
"I got some news," Lemon Frisk said as she opened the door. "I talked to Vector Field."
Misty tilted her head. "Him? Why?" she asked, as they walked inside. She walked into her bedroom, and flopped down onto the bed.
"Well, he'll probably leave soon to make contact with Hayden and the Slags."
"Oh. That," Misty said, lazily tilting her head towards him, without lifting it from the bed.
"Also, well, as you remarked this morning, we seem to keep coming back here..."
Misty sighed. "Well, about that... maybe it's not so bad."
Lemon raised his poor lonesome eyebrow at that. "Oh?"
"I... talked to Winter Gale, and, he's kinda right. I abandoned these people. They need me here, Lemon." She stared at her pillow, which had been pushed into a corner when it had been sneakily substituted by Lemon Frisk's hoof yet again the previous night. "I think it might be nice, to have some place to come back to. I felt so lost, out there..."
"Well. That's convenient," Lemon Frisk said, smiling. "One of the things Vector apparently still does as Overstallion is taking care of housing arrangements."
"Well yeah, everypony knows—" Misty's head shot up. "Wait, you mean... for us?"
Lemon Frisk just nodded, and smiled. "You know, I may want to try this whole family thing again. Last I remember, it was pretty nice."
Misty didn't reply. She got up and closed her bedroom door. Seeing as he was quite clearly conscious now, she decided she needed to practice more at something.
Footnote: Level Up! Does anyone have a convenient level detector? We lost track of Lemon's.
New Perk: Knots Untied: It took you a week, or, arguably, about two centuries, but it seems you're finally ready to let go of the past and start anew. You are less prone to zoning out for random flashbacks in the middle of the day, which is probably a good thing, out there in the Wastes.
SPOILER: about half an hour later, the bedroom door was locked. Misty's parents never saw the two at the dinner table
(on a related note, no, I have no intention of writing one of those infamous ".5" chapters)[edit] Damn you, Wirepony!Okay, now I have to read this.
2440112 "5" chapters?
2440199
No, ".5" chapters. See also, Fallout Equestria chapter 20.5
So, could that be considered necrophilia?
>no ".5" chapter
Hrnnn I've refrained from reading this for so long, due to the infamous reputation of Fo:E side-stories in general, but...
For you, I'll give it a shot :<
Seeya in ten chapters!
2440398
Honestly, the only "reputation" of FO:E sidefics I'm aware of is the misguided belief that writing in a setting created by someone else is somehow a sign of unoriginality. Those who claim that, however, don't seem to have noticed that this whole website is devoted to writing in the setting created by Lauren Faust.
2440299Maybe?
It's good to see this after so long!
Huzzah! We missed ya dude.
I forgot what a moron Misty can be at times.
2440616
Honestly, they both have their moments
In that dialogue, it was more confirming than actually asking, though. Might adapt that to clear it up...
Puppeh missed this story! Why you waited so long before posting a new chapter! Oh well, nao I can read it
Great chapter man, I wonder how her parents are going to deal with the fact that their daughter is having sex with a ghoul...
Oh well at least he's nice
I just want to say I really enjoyed reading what you've written so far. It's an exceptional story, and I can't wait to see what you write next.
This does kinda make me want to read Fallout Equestria, but I don't really like it as much as I do compared to all of the side stories, mainly because it just retreads what happened in Fallout 3. If it changes later, well, that's just fine, but I'll get my Fallout fix from all of the superb side stories.
2440923
I may just have been joking in that first post, you know... you'll have to find out in the next chapter
2441047
Actually... I haven't played any Fallout games, but from what I heard, while it uses a lot of references from factions and locations, the actual story set in FO:E is completely original.
By Molestias beard! There is a update to this story!
Yay, a new chapter! I was afraid that this was dead!
"Lemon nodded. "That's the thing. The balefire that destroyed Equestria was green. When we got out of the Stable, and looked in the direction of any major city, we saw a green glow. All magical radiation you find in the wastelands is green."
Um. Wee problem: FoE has the Fillydelphia Crater, at least, glow red, not green.
"I stared out the window as something huge came out of the red glow of the Fillydelphia Crater."
Other than that, splendid chapter.
2440112
Well, you know, Kkat didn't write the .5 for FoE, and Somber didn't write the .5 for PH. So you saying that you're not going to write one for TDU doesn't break the pattern at all.
2441802
The Canterlot ghouls only saw them from afar, though. You think they could see the center of the Fillydelphia crater from Canterlot? They just saw the glows in the distance, and those were all green. Red glows would just be discarded as being heat, anyway, right after the impacts.
2441809
Side fics usually do it themselves, mostly because no one else cares enough to do it.
Besides, "having no intention of writing" isn't the same as not writing... those bastards on the irc keep insisting
(that, and I got a plethora of (awful) jokes I could use in such a chapter... *sigh*)
2441866
But what were the green glows coming from?
2441911
Umm... the normal green balefire radiation glow?
2441921
I know that balefire detonations are rainbow-sheened green and that balefire phoenixes are green, but, to my knowledge, the Fillydelphia Crater is the best evidence we have for what the residual radiation from a high-power blast looks like. It's your story, though, so you can have it be green if you want; I just wanted to be sure that you knew that it might not be in accord with FoE.
2441977
That's only the high-density radiation left in the actual crater, though. That's not what you see from far away. The surrounding radiation still glows green. Point is, this blue is neither one of those. It seems to be something entirely different.
2440475 Thank you, I never actually read the original story, only the wiki summary . (Far too long)
2442520
Aww. It's a brilliant story, though. Definitely worth the read. I especially love the magnificently executed amnesia subplot
As I said in some earlier comment, though, this story is quite well readable without having read the original, since it more or less goes over all the basics of the Wastelands as Misty learns them.
2442579 I did however read the entire wiki along with summary, so I know enough to get me through the story
Can't wait for another chapter though.
Though Misty can't become immune to rads, would she overtime become more resistant to their harmful effects by being so near to a ghoul for so long. Even the pink cloud would likely become less of a threat at some point one could assume; rather than uber deadly, very deadly
I wouldn't mind seeing Lemon get to use his security clearance on something. That and maybe help reform some sense of civilization in the area near really long pun for Indianapolis. That being said, I'd like to see a map Maybe figure out a way to repair, reprogram, and reactivate the security bots in the military base and add to it to help protect the area from raiders and feral ghouls.
Lastly, why doesn't lemon use a saw to slim down the pipbuck in his hoof; deactivate it; and then take a pipbuck from one of the many dead ghouls/ find a new one somehow.
This crisis manager certainly has one large crisis to solve.
Yay!Yay!Yay!Yay!Yay!Yay!Yay!
2440484
While it's probably a silly point of view, I find the stigma to be that the side stories suffer either from unnecessary/excessive gore or an infinite hiatus at chapter five :/
... Plus a great deal don't explain anything about the universe, and for one such as I who has yet to read the original (I've heard rumors of tragedy, and I try to avoid those like the plague), those aren't the best reads.
Anyways, I read yours, and it falls under none of the above, and once again your characters are growing on me, so I suppose it's all I can do to follow this :D
2444090
Well, going back to my original reply... you can hardly expect people to explain the whole world of MLP in an MLP fan fic. It's quite normal you have trouble understanding all of it if you haven't seen MLP, except maybe if you do a classic Human In Equestria situation
As for tragedy... well, Fallout: Equestria is a story containing fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles... but then again, so did The Princess Bride
Kidding aside, though, if you don't like tragedy... stay away from Project Horizons. But Fallout: Equestria itself isn't so bad. Of course, the whole premise of the war is pretty tragic for the mane six, but as for the story itself, well, I didn't think it was all that tragic. May be a bit of a spoiler, but, Littlepip actually survives the whole ordeal. Overall, it has a pretty happy ending.
Good chapter again, I liked it but I'd say the blue balefire is probably a didn't type of balefire bomb or something like that
2443128
Not really... she just needs to stock up on RadAway
As far as I know, the only point at which it becomes less dangerous to somepony is the point generally called "ghoulification"
(There's another poison in FO:E that's even worse, though, called "taint". It builds up in your body, and the bigger the buildup, the more chance you got of getting freaky mutations. These occasionally do stuff like making someone more radiation resistant, but you got just as much chance to grow a tumour the size of a bowling ball out of your eye socket)
Something like this?
http://nyerguds.deviantart.com/art/The-Daily-Unlife-Beyond-Canterlot-Mountain-304849273
I have... something planned in that aspect. Something truly TDU style
(I really want to get the Second Sparkle Cola Expedition over with, so I can get to all that awesome city stuff I got planned after that )
Oh, he will. Once they find something Ministry of Morale related.
Whinnyapolis is Minneapolis, actually. In terms of pronunciation, I Just changed a single consonant at the start. Your "really long pun" is actually less syllables than "Indianapolis"
The problem is, Pink Cloud actually fuses metal and flesh, without necessarily killing the flesh. He's undead, not dead, so he still feels that leg. Cutting the pipbuck out would be quite painful.
2444457
The blueness is kinda the big reveal I'm trying to let this story go to, eventually.
2445391 So he can literally feel when things touch the pipbuck, or just the pressure on what's left of his surrounding nerves?
Yay a map!
2445530
I imagine he can still feel stuff with the fleshy parts in the whole mangled mess. You can kinda compare it to a bandage stuck in a wound, only, permanently. Removing it would hurt like hell
Maybe someone can at least fix it or something, like walking into a PipBuck related building and having it auto update; which includes the thing doing all that it can to operate at peak performance. The chip or whatnot is likely at least partially fused to his bone so the program would have to remap itself and what not.
Push come to shove, he can always have it amputated for a robotic limb
2445664
Point is, he honestly doesn't care enough to do something about it.
2445692
Oh, I guess I'm just a bit
At some point they should visit a mountain military base he remembers about and finds a ghoul unicorn (no tip making his magic dulled) officer who's been just fiddling with weapons and the computer systems since the Great War. He has a automatic chair built from a sentry bot; and multiple mindless ghoul soldiers wandering the place with him. All of which still salute him when he enters a room. Over the course of 200 years he's taught himself how to play with the computer system's coding, repair robots, and modify weapons but still can't leave the base due his sentry chair's range to generators being only far enough to reach the outside of the base. Furthermore, he's a bit hard to understand nowadays being that he's only had himself and the brain-dead ghouls to speak with; plus his journals have been progressively getting less legible and constructive as time dragged on.
Just an idea; Mainly I just want a bunch of ghoul ponies saluting a ghoul officer who still has intelligence left.
2448034
pfff hah. Sorry, already got a bunch of stuff planned: I'll just be happy to actually get there. There will obviously be more ghouls and other 200-year old oddities, with varying degrees of sanity, not to mention interesting wildlife and maybe a few canines
Do keep in mind, Flitter was written 90% in advance, allowing me a steady release schedule. This story is more of an ongoing experiment, so, it could be several weeks before I got a next chapter out. Right now I'm writing summaries of my chapters in order to make a somewhat realistic planning for future chapters, but I haven't even started thinking about how to tackle Day 9. All the cool stuff I really want to get done (some of which is even already written as rough draft) seems to be further in the future
2450008
Alrighty
2459184
I have no idea what that even means
Did I mention I never played any Fallout games?
I noticed that too, yes, and have been in the process of fixing it, but I haven't updated it all here yet. I've now switched from using GDocs as intermediary to pasting into the rich text editor of some forum that apparently accepts copied text with markup from MS Word, which can then convert the whole shebang to BBCode simply by switching off said Rich Text Editor after the pasting. (note that this is the only time MS Word is ever involved in the process. I write in Wordpad, in RTF format)
[edit]
There. I think I fixed them all. Regular Expressions FTW
2460273
Gods I hope so too
2472011 Yeah, it does that. You should see what it did when I read when I read MN7. Poor Glimmerlight...
2460330 You never played them? Well, when you do, get the PC versions, trust me. Believe it or not, I have prereader who hasn't played Fallout, or even read the original FOE. He seems to get it though.
2472179
Well some comments here from the watchers I gained from my changeling story, Flitter, seem to indicate this story is quite readable without having read FO:E. That was never intended, but I guess Lemon explaining everything to Misty does help
By the way.. I may not have played them, but I like bingeing on wikis every now and then, and The Vault Fallout Wiki has been a great source of inspiration from time to time
Is that a reference? I sure hope so!
2541420
Haha, it absolutely is a reference to that comic's name... but not really specifically to that zombie comic he did. I just love GWTB
Though, yeah, Lemon Frisk arguably used a similar tactic against the raiders
poke
Enjoying this story quite a bit. The characters are interesting and likeable, not a cloud of melodrama and gut wrenching angst in sight. Even the legitimate moments of sadness and melancholy are handled with genuine reactions.
It is rare, I've found, that I care for protagonists in an Fo:E sidefic. Daily Unlife has protagonists I care about. I actually want to see what happens between these crazy kids and the wastelands.
Really, a breath of fresh air in a sea of meaningless ultraviolence and melodramatic angst.
3082816
Wow.... that's quite a compliment
I'm glad the story is doing exactly what I intended it to do
All right. Just read through this after we talked on the Writer's Group IRC earlier. You, sir, have one more person following this story (and probably the rest of your stuff, once I'm not too tired to read it). Anyway, I'm not sure if these are too common outside the Project Horizons Comment Crew (PHCC), but what started as more editing-type notes turned into a running commentary. Feel free to ignore the former. (Writing for a year apparently makes people better at it. Who'd have thought!) I'd like to post it here, but at just over a hundred lines, it might be slightly long for a comment. Have a link to PasteBin instead. (If you can, I recommend turning off text wrapping.) It's just everything I noticed as I was reading recorded as I was reading, so there's several places where I speculate about something only to have it answered later. That's just how these things tend to work out. Thanks for linking me to this!
EDIT: I really should spellcheck things before uploading them. Sorry!
3236172
You can just, ehm, post all that stuff here, in the comments of each chapter, you know. Just make sure you actually comment it below the actual chapter, rather than on the full story, since commenting on the story just dumps it on the last chapter's comments.
I love getting comments, but doing it this way is kinda messing up the comments system, so please don't do that. Just post your comments normally. I don't mind getting a dozen comments on this at once from one person; just make sure to actually post them in the right chapter.
3236172
Well, he kinda has to
Totally shocking, huh?
The zombies->brains thing is something that has bothered me for ages, lol. I just thought it'd be fun to add it in here as joke.
Not like I'm even remotely keeping inventories for my characters in this story
It's an easily-overlooked detail
I assume this is about the "For a psychologist, she could be quite bad at reading people" line? And yeah, Misty has a tendency to 'switch off' her special talent in situations she sees as 'familial'. It's her way of keeping a work/home separation.
It's about a decade, more or less.But yeah, references can perfectly be anachronisticHeh, yeah. But I'm writing a comedy fic here, so to me it's just extra material
Hah, no, never even saw that page, actually. I loved that Daring Do idea I came up with for this chapter, though
I just said there was a link to it at the end of chapter eight - with which I meant, in the Author's Notes