Fallout: Equestria, Hivemind

Misty’s eyes bulged in shock at the strange figure standing before her. Deep purple fur covered a lithe and overly tall pony. Unusual for any pony she had seen, large flared wings fluttered in the soft breeze, and on its head a horn, long and thin, shone with dissipating magics. A lighter purple mane and tail flowed from the strange creature's neck and rump, and shining purple iris and pupil-less eyes seemed sightless yet seeing all. Around the sinuous neck was a green and blue striped scarf, a stark contrast to the colouring that the strange pony like creature wore. Its ear flicked then it slowly turned its head. It seemed to take in the gape mouthed unicorn with a strong steady gaze. Misty backed away, suddenly fearful, as it turned it’s full attention to her. When it spoke the voice was delightfully feminine yet resonant with restrained power.

“Oh crap”, it said.

A groan from the pile of armour that had been blasted away from Hero distracted Misty briefly, then as she turned her head back, the figure disappeared with a flash of purple light. Time seemed to stand still as Misty’s mind tried to work out exactly what happened. It failed.

Misty shook herself as she tried to work out what she had seen before remembering her training. She dashed towards the still figure of Hero and knelt on all fours. She started to examine Hero, her horn glowing as she used a quick scanning spell to see the damage. But the strange physiology of the changeling only confused her. However,she could see the segmented armour of the changeling’s chest rise and fall;so knew that her companion was still alive. Her eyes took in the bloodied fractures in the changeling’s carapace around the pipbuck. Sticky orange muscle tissue quivered where the shell had broken away. She opened her pack and levitated out a healing magic infused bandage and started wrapping the material around the unconscious changeling’s shattered leg, covering the exposed flesh and broken armour shell. Still winding the bandage further, she covered the pipbuck to the lower limb; praying to Celestia above that the healing abilities of the bandage will work on a non-pony. Misty contemplated a healing potion for her friend, but decided to just let the bandage and sleep do its work.

The pile of metallic armour groaned again, and began moving as whatever it was started to raise to its feet. Startled by the sound, Misty turned and whisked the pistol out of her bag and pointed it at the metal covered figure. It groaned again as the shattered helmet fell from its head. Misty’s eyes narrowed as the grisly visage of a dead pony. Mattered blond fur barely covered the twisted skin and flesh that covered the skull of the living dead pony. Its lips twisted in a perpetual rigor grin. Misty fired her gun at the horror before her, the bullets fired in haste mostly missed or pinged off the haphazard armour. The undead pony bounded to the side and skidded to a stop behind a large red bolder, as more bullets bit into the dirt around it.

"HEY STOP," the ghoul yelled.

Shocked at the sudden voice and lacking any more bullets, Misty did stop shooting. Her magic flicked the magazine release and the spent magazine dropped to the dirt before her, a quick bit of levitation brought out a fresh magazine and it slotted into place. "GET OUT HERE MONSTER," Misty yelled to the rock.

"Who you calling a monster," The ghoul yelled back, its voice reveling its owner’s masculinity

Misty paused for a moment, having not expected anything like an intelligent response from what was, in her mind, a mindless killing thing.

"YOU," She shouted back. Even in her ears it sounded a bit lame.

"I was trying to get the monster that was following you," The ghoul yelled back

Misty paused, "What Monster, you monster!?"

"CELESTIA'S WIDE ASS! I AM NOT A MONSTER!"

"That's what a monster would say!"

"So are you a monster then?" The undead's pony voice was dry

"OF COURSE NOT," Misty spluttered

"That’s what a Monster would say." The ghoulish voice threw back her own words.
"Look,” the ghoul continued, "If I come out, will you please not shoot at me! It does hurt you know!"

Misty was silent for a good minute as she tried to work out what to do. Her experience with undead things was limited, as the only ones she had ever met were mindless and blood thirsty, and that she had run away from leaving her homeless.
She also remembered her Commandant’s description of the armoured attackers of her Stable. The rage of the righteous burst into an inferno as she yelled back, "YOU KILLED EVERYONE I LOVED!" Her weapon barked again as she fired wildly at the red boulder the ghoul was crouched behind

"STOP SHOOTING! YOU ARE JUST WASTING BULLETS," The ghoulish voice yelled back.

"THEN COME OUT HERE AND DIE!"

"YOU'RE TOO LATE FOR THAT!" The ghoul made a sound like a sigh. "Look I am coming out, OK? Just point your gun at me if you want but don’t shoot!"

"DID YOU ATTACK MY HOME STABLE?"

"NO!"

"PROVE IT!" Misty's voice cracked from her constant yelling

"YOU ARE THE FIRST PONY I HAVE SEEN FOR AGES!"

"HOW CAN I *hack cough* TRUST YOU?"

Moving very slowly the armour clad dead yet not dead pony came out of cover of the rock. Misty's pistol was shaking slightly in her magic field as her heart raced. "I just was trying to save you from that monster before you took me out," the ghoul said calmly. A metal covered fore hoof gestured towards the black changeling.

"And who," Misty challenged, "said that I needed saving?"

If the ghoul still had eyelids he would have blinked, instead he opted for "err um" and then was silent.

Misty kept the zombie covered as she looked over at Hero. Then she looked back at the confused undead and sidled back over to her friend. She checked her handy work quickly and saw that the bandages were indeed working and some of the fractures were starting to knit together as the changeling slept. With a quick look at her own pipbuck, she saw that the blip showed her the presence of the zombie was green. The color for safe. She also noted the ghoul thought that she had taken him down, rather than the giant purple pony that she was starting to wonder was a hallucination. She decided to keep that information to herself, just in case she was going mad.

"And why," she said in a dark voice ",is my friend, a monster"

The zombie shifted a bit on his feet. "Um, because he-”

"She"

"Oh" sheepishly the ghoul paused, "because she looks like one?"

Misty looked impassively at the mummified face of the ghoul. "Looked in the mirror lately?" She snapped the safety on her mouth pistol and lowered it.

The zombie looked visibly relieved. "That wouldn’t have killed me, you know," he said, "but it would have really made a mess, and I don’t want to look any worse than I do now". The zombie took a couple of tentative steps towards Misty, watching her carefully hoping not to suddenly find himself the recipient of burning slugs of lead.

"Just stay there.” Misty’s voice brooked no argument.

The armoured ghoul stopped his advance, and shifted nervously on his hooves. Misty took the time to give him a better look. The armour looked grimy, and mismatched. The forelegs and chest seemed to have come from some sort of powered armour, but the back and hind legs seemed to be scrap metal overlaid like scales stitched onto leather. The ghoul seemed to shrink back a bit from the steady gaze of the camo shirt wearing blue unicorn.

The blue glow around the mouth gun faded as Misty took the butt between her jaws. The glow reformed around her horn as she carefully lifted the bandaged leg of her friend and carefully looked at how the fractures that ran up the leg were setting. Lowering the damaged limb gingerly she sighed, then started to lift the entire changeling, packs and all onto her own already laden back. The changeling was as limp as a filly’s ragdoll, but the weight buckled Misty’s legs as she started to move off. The undead pony watched for a moment then spoke.

“Do you,” he asked hesitantly, “need some help?’

Misty turned and looked sardonically at the bashful face of ghoul, then turned back and started trudging slowly away bearing her burden.

“I’m sorry, ok,” The ghoul called out, “I didn’t know that that, was your friend!”

Misty stopped, but kept looking forward. Her ears, however, swiveled around as she listened to what he had to say.

“I- I’m Tidbit.” The ghoul looked down. “I just wanted to help. I saw you being followed by your, um, whatever that is, and I thought that…..” Tidbit’s voice petered out as Misty turned back. Magic enveloped the weapon in her jaws and levitated it too her side.

“You thought that my friend is a monster and you would be Mr. Daring and save poor helpless me.” Misty’s voice dripped with sarcasm

“Yes”

“And I was going to be overcome with relief and devote myself to my macho hero”

“Uh... I hadn’t thought that far ahead.” Tidbit’s milky eyes looked at Misty “I thought a ‘hello’, and ‘how are you’ would be nice”

Silence filled the moment as the living and the undead looked at each other, while the changeling remained out cold across the back of the unicorn.

“If you’d like, you can look after your friend in my house” Tidbit gestured with a metal clad for hoof at the building he had rushed them from. “It’s safer than being out here during the night”

Misty weighed the options in her head before coming to a decision. “Fine. But if you try anything. What I did to you before, “Misty snarled while claiming responsibility for the purple pony’s assault on the ghoul, “will be nothing compared to what I WILL do to you”

Tidbit nodded his assent before turning and leading Misty and her burden into the blasted doorway of what he had called home.

“Oh crap oh crap oh crap!” The artificial allcorn was miles away in a gully, pacing back and forward in agitation. “I should not have done that... I should only watch. I shouldn’t interfere.”
Her hooves bit into the dirt sending up small puffs of dust as she continued her freak-out.
She sat down suddenly and closed her eyes. Taking deep breaths she calmed herself down “Its ok, its ok. Everything will be ohhhkayyy.” The mantra and breathing helped to slow her racing heart and soothe her mind.

It was times like this that she missed Unity. The Goddess’ reassuring voice and the sounds of the thoughts of her sisters in her mind, counselling her, calming her. But now with the death of the Goddess there was nothing in her mind except herself. She remembered when the connection to her Goddess was severed, the panic that overtook her as she felt totally and utterly alone.

She wondered briefly if perhaps, just perhaps… She shook her head. No, she knew they wouldn't accept her, she was too different. She should just go, and not watch them.

She also knew that she wouldn’t.

Hero laid on an old mattress in one of the surviving rooms of the old farmhouse that Tidbit had made his home. Darkness had started to fall, so Tidbit lit a fire in one of the hearths while Misty watched over Hero. The bandages around Hero’s leg had stopped the bleeding and the magics imbedded in them were working on knitting together the shards of the carapace.
The changeling’s pipbuck seemed to have adjusted itself to her physiology, much to the surprise of Misty. She hooked her own to Hero’s and studied the readout in silence.

Tidbit went into one of the other rooms and removed the metal and leather he wore, placing it in a tidy pile alongside a battle saddle. He buffed at some of the dirt on the defunct power armour portions and checked the rest for any damage. Misty walked into the room and watched the stallion silently working on his gear.

“Thank you,” she said simply

Unsure what to say, the gaunt ghoul nodded at her, then returned to his task.

Misty left him to his work, and joined Hero on the mattress and fell asleep.

The bright morning sun stabbed through the slats of the windows shutters and fell upon the face of a sleeping changeling. Hero’s eyes opened and her jaws stretched wide as she yawned.
Looking around she found herself next to a stirring Misty. Hero looked around at the strange surroundings, the wooden walls, the wooden dusty floor, and the empty shelves. Scenes she had seen many times in many damaged buildings as she had wandered, but never had she suddenly woken up in one that she could not remember going into in the first place.

She looked down and saw that her leg had been bandaged, and the pipbuck she had acquired was beeping away on its own. Hero lifted her leg and sniffed at the bandage. Then she licked it. She decided she didn’t want to feel bandage on her tongue anymore. She put her leg back down.

Groaning, Misty woke up and blinked a few times before rubbing the grit of sleep out of her eyes. She looked around and saw Hero sitting up beside her. Misty got herself up to a sitting position beside Hero and gently used her magic to pick up the bandaged limb. Hero watched Misty trustingly as she gently unwrapped the now magically drained bandage from the limb. Misty leaned forward and smiled. The leg seemed to have healed so completely that there was no visible sign of damage to the chitin.

“It’s looking good” Misty told the changeling.

“It looks like our leg” Hero responded.

Misty rolled her eyes, both at the blitheness of the reply… and Hero’s continued lack of first pony pronouns.

A shadow loomed in the room and a dry rumble spoke. “Good morning, I would offer breakfast but-” Tidbit found himself hit by an enraged black armoured figure, Hero screeched and lunged forward her jaws wide.

“HERO NO!” Misty threw a levitation field around the snarling black beast “HERO STOP! PLEASE!” Hero struggled fitfully in the field as she spat in animalistic fury at Tidbit.

‘HERO! FRIEND! BAD FOOD!” Misty cried out to her friend.
Hero calmed down to a low rumble and Misty lowered her gently to the ground. The field dissipated but Hero’s growl remained. Her eyes narrowed and she lowered her head ready to charge and gore, but remained still.

“Please Hero”, Misty pleaded, “He is safe, he helped us”

Misty looked at Tidbit “And you say sorry for what you did yesterday!”

“But-” the ghoul spluttered

“Say it.” Misty was the Mistress of the Voice of Obedience.

Tidbit sighed. “Sorry,” he muttered

Hero’s gaze didn’t waver from Tidbit but the growling had stopped. Hero chirped once then turned her head to Misty with a grin on her dark face.

“And you apologise to Tidbit. After all he was kind enough to let us stay here last night,” Misty told her.

Hero paused, then feeling Misty poke her in the side she turned back to the ghoul host.

“We are sorry.”

“CELESTIA'S SHINY ASS IT CAN SPEAK!”

Misty face-hooved. “Aw fuck me.”