EDIT: Changed a good few things to make this better, hope nobody minds c:

Part 1 of probably my first serious fic XD Set in the Fallout Equestria universe. Follow the amnesiac alicorn Aether Flow as she ventures the Equestrian wastelands in search of answers, meeting friernds and making enemies, encountering hardships and forming fireforged bonds, as she and her companions fight to save the wasteland from a sinister threat nopony ever saw coming.

Chapter 1: Rude Awakening, Into the Wastes

Ever wonder what its like to know a lot of things, and then nothing? To have your life, your memories, ripped from you so suddenly, so brutally, that it leaves you with gaping holes where things should be but no longer are? That about sums me up. My name? You’ll learn that. What am I, you ask? The short answer is a pony. The long answer? Well...I'm what they call an alicorn, a mutant. Freak. A walking perversion of the natural order. And hey, I wasn't always one; I don't know what I was though but heh guess no way of finding out now, eh? This is my story, and you might want to pull up a chair because it isn’t a short one.

The first sensation that came to me was pain; a throbbing ache permeating my skull like a jackhammer was going at it. I tried to open my eyes but I didn’t even have the strength for that, all I could do was be lost in a void of darkness and the swirling colour patterns created by eyes deprived of light. I could hear sounds to my…right I guess, I couldn’t tell, but I definitely heard sounds, voices and the creaking of floorboards. And then one voice became just clear enough for me to make out: “Well shit, that’s an alicorn!” it spat, a fearful tone in this male, gruff voice. A what? An “alicorn?” what was that? “Moonshine, she’s flicking her ears about, she can obviously hear you!” called a lighter, female voice. “Goddesses damn it woman why did ya even drag this big lump of death into the fucking house!? Soon as it comes to its gonna vaporize us!” the voices argued for a while, as I just drifted in a haze, until I eventually managed to drum up enough strength to groan and try and push myself up. “Celestia alive it’s getting up!” the male voice, Moonshine, cried, as I managed to lurch into an upright position. “Hush, let me try and speak to it…” the female said softly. I felt a hoof gently place itself upon my forehead and-OW! That hurt! But *what* hurt? It felt like a cut or a bruise… “Can you hear me?” she asked, she was addressing me since I could feel her breath crinkle my snout as she spoke, she must’ve been very close to my face, which worried me. I nodded slowly. “Good, can you open your eyes?” I tried, it was hard. “Easy…easy now girl, you must be disorientated. We found you out by the rocks just lying there waiting for death, but we’ll tell you once you get those eyeballs open, now come on…” with slow, but steady progress, I managed to crack my eyelids open, the world was a bright, colour splashed blur that stung momentarily before focusing: I was on an old bed in some shack, the mare talking to me was a peach furred earth pony with blue eyes and a brunette mane, the stallion was the same coloured coat but was a unicorn with a silver mane and brown eyes, and he looked worse for wear. “Good, you can see…now tell me, alicorn, who are you? Why were you out there?”

I scoured my brain, trying to think of something, anything, to tell them. But my mind was a blank slate. Tabula rasa. “I…” I said weakly, throat burning. “I don’t know.” The mare’s expression furrowed slightly. “And your name?” “I don’t know…sorry.” “Do you even know where you are?” “No.” I felt shame, I was unable to answer her questions, and part of me felt the desire to give her answers, despite these answers not existing. “She’s lying!” the stallion hissed, stomping over to me and grabbing my mane painfully “Listen bitch, you better start telling us answers RIGHT NOW or-!” my horn glowed green suddenly, and as if acting on instinct alone it sparked and cast a sudden burst of power, pushing him back violently and making him crash against a table with a groan. I tried to move but my legs buckled under me and with a yelp I fell to the ground with a thud, panting and thrashing, scared, hurt, alone. “Calm down! Please, calm down!” the mare gasped, trying to pin me, as wings flapped madly and long legs flailed with wild abandon, nearly crushing her skull. She stayed close to me, holding my neck and side to avoid being hurt in my panic, and she whispered softly to me. “Please calm down, you’re not in danger, you’re hurt, my husband is just an idiot, please, relax.” Her voice was soothing, like honey, and I felt my racing heart slowly calm as my thrashing ceased, I was spent, and just lay there, breathing heavily. “Good girl.” She breathed gently. “Damn that was a strong surge…guh.” The stallion, Moonshine groaned as he got back up from my sudden outburst. The mare scoffed as she tried to help me sit upright. “You should know better than that! Spooking the poor dear!” she hissed. “Sorry Brandy…sorry, uh, you.” He moaned, I gave a small nod to show I wouldn’t go for him again. Peace. Bliss. Calm.

“By the way, my name is Brandy, that there’s my husband Moonshine.” She said gently as I sat, a little wobbly still. “Those are nice names.” I said, I couldn’t think of anything else to say, and hoped that didn’t sound, well, dumb. “Thank you dear. If only we knew your name, it must be nice too.” She smiled. I just gave a half honest-half confused smile and continued to sit there looking clueless. My throat burned so badly, pain pulsing with each intake of breath and word spoken, and I tried to make this known with a gesture, hoping they would help. “Oh, your throat? Moonshine could you get our guest something to drink? She must be parched!” Moonshine grunted and went into a backroom, returning with a cup of something, and handed it to me. “Here.” Blunt and to the point. I looked at the drink he had given me; a deep amber mixture with a strong scent, the few rays of sunlight coming through the window shining against it and illuminating it, sending lighter amber waves through its darker depths. Whatever it was I was in no place to decline it, so I gulped it down, before gasping because whatever it was, was *strong* “What, is this?” I wheezed between coughs, making the stallion huff and his assumed wife giggle. “They don’t call me moonshine for nothin’, that there is the finest Mutfruit moonshine this side of Pranceton!” Moonshine beamed “Ain’t that right Brandy?” he asked his wife, who I finally knew the name of. “Yes yes Moonshine, but you forget to say that Pranceton is mostly abandoned save for us and two or three families held up around Mare Hill.” I just cocked my head to the side and blinked, confused. “Oh right, you don’t know anything…long story short: We were out picking Mutfruit for our moonshine and then we come across your carcass just lying there bleeding from a nasty gash on your head. Moonshine here just wanted to leave you be, but I thought we should take you in seeing you just laying there bleeding out like that. So we dragged you back and you’ve been here for a few hours now.” I sat and took this all in; this was hard to process, so I just nodded dumbly at them, like an idiot. “…What’s an alicorn?” I blurted out. Both of them just stared, their brows furrowing somewhat like I’d said something really bad. “…How do you not know? You ARE one!”

I just stared in confusion, until Moonshine handed Brandy a mirror so she could show me what I looked like: I was a large, very large (Maybe 8-9ft tall!) green unicorn with long legs and a very long horn; I also had a pair of powerful wings, one of which was hanging loosely against my flank while the other was tucked neatly in at rest, must be from how I was sitting, and it did hurt slightly. The coat of green fur I had looked long, fluffy and disheveled, no doubt the product of aimless wandering and a lack of coat care products in the world these days. My mane was long, dark green and flowing, with yellow streaks against it and red, feline eyes like rubies. And I noticed a sizeble, ugly looking clotted gash going from the left-hand base of my horn down to my eye socket, so *that* was the head injury they mentioned. I was…well, to be honest, pretty fucking cool looking. I then mentally grimaced and made a note of not swearing to myself about something like that, that was dumb. I looked towards my hosts and meekly asked “Do you know anything about…what I am then?” they glanced at each other nervously, worried expressions and uncertainty. “Well,” Brandy began “All we know is that your kind aren’t common here anymore, not since…well, since a few months ago. Whenever one’s about they keep to themselves or travel in packs, usually avoid the towns.” That gave some comfort but at the same time, it made feelings of discomfort take root in my mind. “And if you don’t mind, we kind of…looked through your satchel, when we found you.” She added sheepishly “We thought you were dead, so we didn’t…” I could see the guilt welling up in her, she thought me dead, just a corpse to be picked clean? Part of me wanted to be angry, outraged even, but another part of me felt sympathy, she was just etching out a living after all. I just shrugged my shoulders as if to say “Eh no problem.” To her, this seemed to relieve her a little. “Now, if you don’t mind we could show you what was in the satchel, maybe it might jog some memories!” she beamed. This mare was optimistic to say the least, and I couldn’t help but feel that wash off on me a little, it felt good to know that someone was actually trying to help me here.

“Ok.” I nodded. Brandy nodded to Moonshine and he levitated a large satchel, big enough to be ok for me to carry but probably cumbersome for a smaller pony, up to the table at which I was sitting near. Brandy began by opening the satchel and pulling out what were apparently my possessions, one by one. “First up, this.” She said, sliding a gun over to me. “Know what it is?” I took one look, and knew instinctively: It was an old revolver, the make of the gun was an outdated design but it was still powerful for its size, the once gleaming silver finish had long since weathered to a dull gunmetal colour. “Colt revolver, .357 magnum rounds.” I read off, part of me buzzed as I recalled this information, a swell of pride in my chest for remembering something, even something this small. “Good! Very good, but sadly the gun is busted, its cylinder’s been crushed, by…something really heavy falling on it.” She sighed. I got the worst feeling that I had somehow crushed the gun, that poor beautiful gun, myself. I nodded to her and she pushed it aside and brought out the next item, a roughly spherical object, with a pin. “Fragmentation grenade, standard issue, 7m casualty radius.” I again barked out. How did I know this? Who was I? She nodded and pushed another thing at me, a small device like a syringe, metal and plastic. I looked at it and my mind burned, I could feel an itch in my skin, the sensation of needles, of injections, inoculations. I shuddered and pushed it away, though I did identify it first. “Stimpotion, standard healing item, adrenal booster and clotting agents, concentrated healing potion in a smaller, intravenous form.” She smiled, although she was worried by my adverse reaction to it.

“I’m fine, don’t worry.” I shuddered; shaking off the unpleasant sensations staring at the stimpotion had given me. “Fine or not, you’re in no condition to leave yet!” she announced, somehow feeling much larger than me despite me being the biggest thing here. “Your gash will heal quickly but your wing, I think its dislocated.” She thought, prodding my wing. I hissed as a sudden surge of pain burst through it, making me wince and pull away. “You must have dislocated it when you passed out, the rush you got after clocking my husband must’ve numbed it for a while.” She observed. I just looked at it and tried to move the wing, and yelped in pain as it seared like fire. “No, don’t move it, you need to stay off that wing for at least a day or so, you alicorns heal fast.” I sucked in air through my teeth and nodded. An alicorn that can’t fly, how ironic. I felt like flying, part of me, deep down, was yelling that I was made to fly, it was natural, and now I couldn’t. This made me feel rather perturbed but I shook it off and tried to stand again, this time slowly managing to get to my feet without as much trouble and I stood tall over my hosts, who had an almost fearful awe to them. I gave a gentle smile to put their fears that I might eat them or something to rest and merely asked “Would you mind if I could use whatever method of bathing you have? My coat and mane are a mess.” I don’t know why I said method of bathing and not just “bath” or “shower, part of me was internally scoffing at the notion that this dingy little hovel could have anything but a rusted old tub of cold, grimy water and little else. I quickly banished that part of me back to the recesses of my mind; I was in no place to slander the ponies who helped me. Part of me felt wrong, like that thought process just now was foreign to my own, a left over product of some conditioning to inspire disdain in those not blessed with wing and horn. Wow, by Luna’s moon plot I was getting depressive.

“Of course!” Brandy chirped, escorting my lumbering alicorn frame through the cramped cabin to a side room. The hovel did in fact contain a bath, thankfully one in fairly nice condition, not the horrible rusted deathtrap I was expecting. “We get our bathwater from trading liquor with caravans that stop through her.” Brandy began. “Well, water for drinking and bathing, we set aside a set amount for each, and the water’s heated by an old talisman we found once, would you believe it.” I just nodded; a warm bath would do me some good right now, maybe clear the nagging, discordant buzz in my skull and help me recall more. I also would probably be needing something to eat yet my stomach felt perfectly fine, no hunger pangs, no discomfort, I literally felt no need to eat, yet my brain was telling me to do so anyway, might help me fit in more with the ponies if I at least *acted* like one, I guess. Brandy left me to my own devices and I used my magic to pick up the tubs of water and dump them into the tub, not too many, just enough that my size would be accounted for. After a good ten or so minutes worth of clumsy fidgeting with the heating talisman I was settled into a tub of comfortably warm water, and with a small squee of joy I hoped my new friends wouldn’t hear, found a brush and some aged but still viable cleaning products. Aha, we were in business now!

I spent what felt like an hour brushing and lathering up my poor coat and mane, trying to get the wear and tear out of it, I wasn’t going to bother preening my wings yet, not until the bad one healed. With my hygiene sorted out I tucked my legs under me and sank a bit deeper into the bath, closing my eyes and allowing myself to become lost in the void of my mind, right then time for some attempted recapping of my life thus far.

At first nothing. No memories presented themselves amidst the echoes. But then slowly, and faintly, a dim realization began to surface, like finding an old photo album or diary amongst a pile of discarded junk. I could see it now. Oh my goddesses I saw it. Fire, screaming, a world of clouds and ash. Pain, vats of rainbow hued liquid and the burns of DNA on fire, as flesh and bone warped and morphed, the feelings of new nerves connecting themselves. Of horn rupturing skin to show itself to the world. Of…of minds burning out, replaced by diligent obedience to a specter long thought dead. Many minds as one, there was no I, only We. Always only We. “FLEE” a voice suddenly boomed through my skull with a sudden burst. “MY CHILDREN, SAVE YOURSELVES, RUN, FLY, GO!” A sudden flash, and then nothing. Many voices crying out at once, We cried out, and then one by one We fell silent, until the only voice still crying, was mine. A name finally raised its head from the darkness and into my waking memory, a simple name, but one of two words. Words that now etched into me and filled me with life, with joy at remembering some small fragment of myself. Aether Flow. My name is Aether Flow. I also recalled a few more details; I had been wandering aimlessly for days before my little “accident” and being found by Moonshine and Brandy, I remembered the basics: Equestria was a wasteland, a balefire swept, irradiated wasteland, full of horrible creatures and none too friendly folk. This was the norm for well over a century, and little was to be done about it. I eventually decided to haul my bulk from the bathtub and emptied it out before levitating an old tower about myself to dry off. My body felt refreshed and muscled relaxed, even my wing felt much less pained now, a promising sign. With a loud creak of the aged floorboards and went back into the main room and gave my thanks to Moonshine and Brandy, I was very grateful to them for everything but I did not want to hang around and be a burden to them. Time to say my goodbyes.

“You best be careful going out there then hon, ‘part from us lots of folks around here ain’t mighty fond of alicorns. You’d do best to protect yourself.” Moonshine gave a little frown at Brandy but nodded, and disappeared into a backroom of the shack, returning with a bundle of gear levitated by his pale blue magic. “Here.” He scoffed. Without thinking my horn suddenly glowed a bright green and I magically took the bundle from him, my spell nearly yanking the unicorn forwards with the gear, I guess my magic is strong. Upon inspecting it I saw that there was a large cowpony hat big enough to fit over my head and an old, red blue and yellow poncho which, with some tweaking, could also fit over my frame. The bundle also contained some caps, about 150 (I inquired, they’re currency, how surprising), a few bottles of that throat blasting moonshine, a few bottles of icky looking water and some stimpotions, the fact they were sharp scared me a little. With another nod he produced an old but sturdy looking shotgun and a bandolier of shells for it, “This is Annabelle, you best do her right girl, she done me right against raider and radwolf many a time.” He said sternly. I nodded and with their help, I was able to get the poncho on perfectly, and put everything into a satchel bag slung over my shoulder, the bandolier worm across my right, and hat on head, with shotgun resting in a holster under my right wing. I was all set to go! “But, before you go hon, I gotta ask ya…you remember your name yet?” Brandy piped. I twisted my snout a little into a small smile and finally was able to answer that question once and for all. “Aether Flow.” I said proudly. My name is Aether Flow.”

“Wow, pretty name. Not what I would’ve picked for ya, but a name’s a name.” Moonshine scoffed, earning a hoof to the chest from Brandy. “I like it too; it has such as nice ring to it.” She smiled. “Just promise me you’ll stay off that wing, right?” I nodded to her and tipped my hat down a little with my hood. “Ok, *now* I’m ready to go.” I said, smiling at them a little and standing to my full hei-OW! The shack’s ceiling was lower than I thought since I just smacked by head against it, again, not a structure built with alicorns in mind. “To ya left is Neighberry Street, lotsa old stores I don’t think been looted much yet, and to ya right is Mare Hill, if ya wanna say high to the few people still livin’ here…” I paused for a sec “Are they friendly to…my kind?” I asked “Nope” was Moonshine’s blunt reply. Well, guess I won’t be meeting the neighbors then. and with that, I left the shack, out into the wide open world…and wow, did it look like crap.