Wasteland Survival Guide: Zoology Edition

Chapter 1: Radiation and You!

"It is a guaranteed fact that, when leaving the safety of your local Vault, radiation will have mutated and deformed the local wildlife. Survival of the fittest is key, should you ever encounter these ill-mannered creatures."

[Blind Eagle's Bluff, outskirts of Fillydelphia, Equestria]

"Uhm...P-Posey? Are ye sure we should be out this far? We're awful close to the cliffs..." Big Bolt, an Earth Pony colt with a steel grey coat and dark grey mane asked.

"Ahh, quit your worryin', will you?" Pristine Posey replied, rolling her eyes "It's not like I'm going to take a running leap and jump over the edge!"

Any newcomer to Clear Springs, Fillydelphia, would take one look at Big Bolt and Pristine Posy, side by side, and think they were polar opposites. Posey was a yellow-coated, red-maned filly, and in some ways, she was perhaps Big Bolt's opposite- she was outgoing, energetic in everything she did, and always seemed to brighten up a room upon entering, making even the brightest of lightbulbs jealous.
Big Bolt, on the other hand, while not as outgoing as Posey, was still fairly social- he went to parties with his friends, fishing with his father on occasion, and even just hanging around the schoolyard, he just didn't see himself as charismatic and confident as his friend.

"Pose?" Bolt asked, his friend nowhere in sight.

"Over here!" she called, popping out from some bushes, rather close to the edge of the cliff.

"What in Celestia's name are you doing?!" he hissed, glancing anxiously at the cliff, as if it were about to collapse.

"C'mere!" she beckoned, motioning for him the follow.

He did so with great caution, eyeing the edge as he followed Posey.

Hidden amongst the bushes Posey was just in, was a badly faded, blue and yellow sign, pointing away from the cliff's edge, and towards a seemingly-random spot, some ways from where the current sign was.

"What's that say?!" Posey asked excitedly, shaking Bolt's body back and forth as she did so.

He squinted at it, only vaguely aware of what it could possibly say.

"Uhh...'something-something way'?" he questioned "Can't make out much more than that..."

"Doesn't surprise me, given how damaged this is..." Posey responded, tentatively poking the rusting sign with a hoof.

Some of the rust came off on the bottom of her hoof, and she winced, scraping the amber brown bits on the sparse grass underhoof.

"So uh...what now?" Bolt asked.

Posey hummed to herself, glancing in the direction the sign was pointing.

"We investigate!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

"Investigate what exactly?" Bolt asked "There isn't anything here but a rusty old sign and some grass, nothing's been here since Clear Springs was founded."

"How do you know that?" Posey asked, dumbfounded.

"Pop said so himself, he and Page Turner even let me see the old maps of the area from way back when- not a single thing was ever built here."

"But obviously there was something, if this sign is here."

"I 'unno, it was there in black and white." Bolt shrugged, then glanced up to the sky "It's getting late, anyhow, want to head home?"

Posey scuffed her hoof in the dirt, and replaced the bushes to their original positions as best as possible. She then trotted over to Bolt, whom watched on in confusion.