Fallout: Equestria- Arcane Division

A griffon wonders through the sun baked healing wasteland desert. The thing was a ghoul but it looked fresher than normal ghouls. The griffon’s molting feathers were stained red with blood. He slowly approached a griffon settlement in the distance.

A young honey colored griffon flies down to the bloody ghoul griffon.

“Dad? That you?” She asks the foot dragging ghoul.

“Melissa,” The ghoul turns to the griffon. She gasps covering her beak as the maggots roll out from his empty voids for eyes.

“Melissa,” Repeats the ghoul.

Melissa drops tears as she pulls out her gun from its holster. The ghoul griffon looks her in the eyes, At least she thinks he did. She thinks she feels there soul connect. She thinks he tells her its okay to shoot.

When they found the fem griffon she was sobbing over the corpse. Half the ghoul’s skull was shot away. Maggots were crawling out the hole in the skull. Some of them had went dry and turned brown.

“Melissa, honey you need to leave him,” One of the griffons tries to lead her away from the body of her dead father.

“Don’t touch me!” The honey griffon flinches away.

“Melissa please,” The griffon begs.

“Leave me the fuck alone,” Melissa snaps.

Deseret flies down to the commotion.

“Des, he was dead, then I killed him,” Melissa cries into the griffon’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, dear,” Deseret tells her sister. She turns to one of the other griffons. “Have you heard from anyone you sent to check on the tower workers?”

“No sir, your father is the only one who seemed to have come out of there in the last three days.” A griffon replied, “We are sending another team with weapons this time to check again.”

“Very well, I’ll take Melissa home in the mean time,” Deseret leads her sobbing sister away.

Back at the dead body, one of the brown maggots split open. A wasp hatches out drying in the sunlight.

Melissa laid curled up in her bed. The lights were of and she could hear her older sisters argue outside of her room.

“What the fuck happen? I mean walking? How did papa turn into a ghoul,” Vespa snaps, “I don’t believe her, but I can’t believe she’d just kill dad like that too.”

“Well it might have been possible before the gardens went off. Most ghouls were created when the bombs fell,” Deseret points out, “But that was rare and you’d have to spend quite a lot of time at the radiated bomb sights. Now it’s those bugs that bother me. How did they get into his body.”

“Don’t tell her I said this but I’m worried for Melissa,” Vespa adds, “First mother abandoned us, she didn’t handle that well. Who knows what she’ll do after finishing dad off.”

“Yes, we should have someone check up on her if she tries something again,” Deseret agrees.

Melissa puts her head in her pillow.

A hard knocking at her door awakes the griffon. The room was darker, it must be night. It was noon when she went to her room, long enough time had passed to allow her bladder to become painfully full.

When she opened the door, Melissa was shocked to find a strange earth pony bumping around in her house. The griffon picks up a baseball bat.

“What the fuck are you doing here,” She shouts raising the bat.

The pony looks at her with dead eyes.”This…isn’t my home is it?”

Realizing the pony was more confused then dangerous Melissa lowers her bat. “No sir it isn’t.” She says in a kind tone.”

“My brain hurts,” The pony cries, “Bugs.”

“Bugs?” Melissa reacted surprised.

Out of the corner of her eye the griffon could see a strangely glowing insect. It glowed like balefire.

Vespa and Deseret burst into the room.

“Melissa you okay?” Deseret demands.

“Yes,” Melissa replied with a laugh in her voice. She turns back to the window to see the flying bug was gone.

“I see we got a visitor,” Vespa points at the confused pony. “Griffons and ponies been doing this all across town. It’s almost like they have been turned into ghouls.”

“Like papa,” Melissa points out, "You think he passed this illness to the town?"

“Zombie plagues are a myth,” Deseret snaps, “Hurtful stereotypes of ghouls.”

“Open your eye sister,” Vespa shouts, “Mr. Eddie here is a deadhead.”

Vespa waves the ghoul pony off the ground.

“Bubble wrap,” The pony drooled

“I rest my case.” Vespa smirks.

“We should lock him up to keep him safe and go ask the mayor what we should do,” Deseret suggests.

“Not in my room,” Vespa interjects, “Ghouls leak everything, I’m not cleaning up whatever decides to slide out of his fun bits.”

Vespa and Deseret looks at Melissa.

“I hate you fucking bitches,” The honey griffon pouts.

They found the mayor unconscious in his office. A welt was on his neck with a little red bead of blood. Melissa shakes the griffon. He starts to stir, but Melissa gives her sisters a worried look and shows them a claw full of feathers.

“He’s molting like a ghoul,” Vespa notes in a hushed tone.

“What happened?” Mayor Ringo holds his head, “Bugs, it feels like bugs.”

“Mr. Ringo are you okay?” Deseret asks.

“Something asked me, when buzz buzz,” Mayor Ringo answers.

“Is he going zombie like the others?” Vespa asks.

“I never heard of ghouls losing their minds so fast,” Deseret notes.

“Ghoul? Does that explain the lights?” Mayor Ringo looks at his claws.

“Buzz buzz, you think he may be talking about in insect?” Melissa points out, “The other guy talked about bugs. And I saw this strange one. It looked like it had balefire inside.”

“That pony also talked of bubble wrap.” Vespa remarks as she looks under the mayor’s desk. She sees a large twitching dying bug with a fading green glow. “Well what do you know?”

The dark griffon carefully taps the bug out from under the desk with her claw. As she was just bringing it out into the open for everyone to see, the wasp flinches and nails the griffon in her wrist with its stinger.

“Fuck!” Vespa stomps down on the bug and holds her wrist.

“Veppie,” Deseret snaps.

“What, the fucking thing bit me,” Vespa shakes her claw to get the feeling back. “Luckily I think it used all its venom on the good mayor here.”

“That is the eye killer,” Mayor Ringo points out.

“The one I seen was very much alive and was glowing brighter,” Melissa tells her sisters.

“That does look like balefire,” Deseret notes.

“You mean like the bombs,” Vespa gives a nervous look at her talon. “You don’t think they use that as venom?”

“That would explain the ghouls,” Melissa adds, “Balefire radiation makes ghouls.”

“But where does the balefire come from?” Deseret points out, “I don’t think they suck it from the air around them not since the Gardens went off. They might make it?”

“The obvious question is why,” Melissa tells Deseret, “Why turn people into ghouls? Why was that one dying?”

“Umm, bees, small bees die after stinging,” Deseret says after some thought. “But in those cases the stingers are lost so it’s basically them bleeding to death.”

“That one had its stinger,” Vespa snaps.

“Ho god no,” Melissa gasps, “Dad he had maggots crawling all over him. Normally maggots don’t attack ghouls so-“

“They were most likely using ghouls as a way of incubation,” Deseret finishes.

“What now?” Melissa asks.

“We leave town,” Deseret answers, “Warn people about this plague.”

The griffons start to walk away when they heard a gun click.

“Where the fuck are you taking my daughter!” Mayor Ringo snaps as he points his revolver at the griffons.

“I think he's talking about you,” Vespa teases Melissa.

“Why do I have to be the cute one,” Melissa rolls her eyes.

“Girls,” Deseret chimes.

The griffons turn around all three of them firing on the ghoul griffon. He drops his gun to the floor. Then he drops to the floor.

The griffons step out of the building. Buzzing grabs their attention. A wasp was flying over head. They spotted the thing. Vespa grabs a board and smashes the insect.

“Okay, I think we can get in contact from the weather tower,” Deseret tells them as she takes to the air.

A blood incrusted griffon tackle Deseret out of the air. They fall in a nearby alley smashing into some wooden pallets. The ghoul griffon was on top of her. Tiny maggots were already slowly dripping from its eyes. The creature gives a screeching hiss.

A cross the alley stood a ghoul unicorn. In a spat of insane rage it growls and smashes a wooden crate against the wall with its magic.

One of the Featherborn sisters takes out the griffon ghoul. The other takes out the unicorn once the aim was clear.

Deseret rolls over holding her rump. A squashed wasp was under her.

“Deseret you been stung,” Melissa gasped.

“You don’t think that thing put some eggs in you?” Vespa asks.

Deseret winced in pain. “Check their necks!”

“What?” Vespa reacts.

“Check the fucking necks for marks!” Deseret gasps holding her chest.

“The pony has a mark on his neck,” Melissa calls out.

“Your date has one too,” Vespa checks the dead ghoul griffon.

“Good, shows modus operandi,” Deseret sighs, “They need to inject eggs in the neck. But I think I should take some rataway.”

“The clinic isn’t that far,” Melissa tells them.

They turned the corner. The clinic was in sight but there where hundreds of wasps covering the building.

“No fucking way,” Vespa snaps.

“Not all of those came from papa,” Melissa points out with an uncomfortable tone.

“We need to get in there,” Deseret tells them.

Melissa walks out of a nearby apartment holding a red fire extinguisher.

“It’s old Stable-Tec but should still work hopefully,” She remarks.

The three griffon slowly creeped to the clinic.

“Okay fire that thing off,” Vespa tells Melissa as they got close.

“Okay,” Melissa presses the trigger.

There was a silent hiss his that slowly faded away.

“Fucking Stable-Tec,” Melissa taps the fire extinguisher on the ground.

Ka-Boom!

When Melissa woke up she was laying in a hospital bed. Her hands and side stung in pain. A purple alicorn injects her with Med X.

“Who? What?” Melissa could barely hear herself.

“I’m Ivory Venus, I run this clinic,” The alicorn might of said if Melissa could hear her.

Melissa turns her head to see Deseret and Vespa drinking rataway.

“The fire extinguisher had a massive failure. Lucky you’re only coming out with frost bite claws and a broken rib,” Deseret explains.

"Ear drums," Melissa adds.

“Sorry you had to go through such lengths to get help,” Ivory Venus tells the griffons, “If I knew I would have teleported out there sooner and got you.”

“It’s okay,” Deseret reassures the alicorn.

“I don’t know why those things are attracted to this building?” Ivory Venus remarks.

“Something about this place those balefire bugs like,” Vespa points out.

“Balefire?” Ivory Venus raised an eye.

“The wasps out there seem to generate or gather balefire radiation,” Deseret explains, “They use the balefire to turn their victims into ghouls and lay their eggs in people’s heads.”

“Well because of what we do here this building is the most radioactive in the town,” Ivory Venus then shrugs, “Heck I’m the most radioactive being in this city. I have magic that scrubs the radiation that I use now and again to keep things safe for everyone.”

“We need to get out of here to warn people,” Deseret tells her, “We are looking to go to the tower.”

“I think I can teleport there,” Ivory Venus answers.

“Then do it,” Deseret replied.

The alicorn closed her eyes. All three griffons were sucked into her teleportation field.

They found themselves standing in front of the tower. They could see some wasps crawling over the building.

“This is where papa works,” Melissa points out somberly looking up at the tower.

“We have a dead brahmin here,” Vespa checks a corpse on the ground, “I think it might be a ghoul, you can’t tell with brahmin. Aren’t they what happen when ghoul cows fuck or something?”

“Shit, this maybe point zero for this plague,” Deseret adds.

“If they like the radioactive alicorn should we be standing next to her?” Vespa asks.

“You should run away from me,” Ivory Venus tells them.

The griffons make for the tower as a swarm of wasps fly at the alicorn. She fends off the wasps with beams from her horn.

Deseret and Vespa takes to the air. Melissa tries but grabs her side. Vespa starts to turn back.

“Go!” Melissa shouts.

The honey griffon picks up a pipe and starts swinging at wasps that were coming at her. Ivory Venus runs to Melissa.

“I thought I told you to get away,” The alicorn snaps.

“I can’t let you fight by yourself,” Melissa smirks, “I owe these bastards for what they took from me.

“Down!” Ivory Venus shouts as she leaps onto the griffon.

Wasps swarm them. As the wasps coved the pony and griffon, loud pops started to be heard.

Deseret and Vespa kills the maggot eyed ghoul griffons and pony with gun fire. The two griffons sealed the room to keep anything else from coming in.

Deseret flips some switches on the control panel and speaks into a mic.

“This is Deseret Featherborn sending out an emergency broadcast to control command from Griffonville. Come in Tenpony.”

“This is Tenpony, we read you Griffonville. What’s the emergency?” A female voice answers.

“We have a very deadly plague outbreak, Plague is spread by wasp like insects and causes victims to turn into zombie ghouls.” Deseret replied.

“Could you repeat that?” Control answers.

“Zombie plague, repeat Zombies caused by a deadly insect.” Deseret tells them, “Requesting evac and quarantine.”

“Your quests have been heard please stand by for additional orders,” The voice replied.

Deseret sighs nervously.

Vespa walks to the wasp covered window. “I want to help them.

“You better not open that door,” Deseret snaps.

“Excuse me,” A different unassuming female voice answers, “You said something about insects?”

“Yes,” Deseret answers.

“How bad is it?” The voice asks.

“I’m not sure about survivors but it’s pretty bad,” Deseret told the voice.

“I can cause the area to rain, I don’t think insects like to move in the rain so that should stop the spread.” The voice replied.

“Who are you?” Deseret asks.

“Eh,” The voice laughs nervously, “Lit-Littlepip.”

“The Littlepip,” Vespa shouts, “That’s ritch, aren’t you suppose to be sleeping?"

“My body yes,” Littlepip answers, “My brain is in the network.”

They heard thunder and rain drops out side.

“Please don’t tell anyone you can talk to me like this,” Littlepip tells the griffons, “I want to live in peace.”

“Please don’t go,” Deseret speaks up.

“I can’t do more,” Littlepip answers.

“You can see everything right since you are connected to the network right?” Deseret asks.

“I see a lot,” Littlepip replied.

Then why didn’t you see this?” Deseret snaps.

“I can’t watch everything and I can't watch people, I know things are better now, but what can I do, I can’t watch ponies hurt one another and be helpless.” Littlepip answers, “I’m sorry if I knew. I could have done something about this.”

There was a knock at the door. Vespa opens allowing Ivory Venus and Melissa to enter into the room. They were covered in clumpy goo.

“Are you two stung?” Vespa asks.

“Male bees,” Melissa answers.

“They appear to be the ones attracted by radiation,” Ivory Venus flicks slime off her hoof.

“Weirdest thing they jerked off on us and died,” Melissa shrugged.

“So it’s like a normal date for you then,” Vespa snickered.

“Male bees and wasps die after mating,” Littlepip adds over the speakers.

“If male wasps go after the highest radioactive thing they can find and fuck themselves to death,” Deseret notes, “We may have a way of eradicating these things.”

“You are talking about a balefire powered bug zapper?” Littlepip remarks, “I know some people that can make that.”

Deseret whispers into the mic. “It was nice working with you, miss light bringer.”

“It was a pleasure, I just wish I could do more from here,” Littlepip sighs.

“Do you remember stories of a being called watcher?” Deseret asks.

“I’m familiar with him,” Deseret could hear the knowing more smirk in Littlepip’s voice.

“He would ask groups to go out and be heroes,” Deseret continues, “The way you are talking to us makes me think of him.”

There was a moment of silence from Littlepip. “I know someone that has been asking for help. If and when you feel up to it lets see what kind of heroes you are?”

___
“Each day we can step up a little more and make a deference. Even when you think you’d done enough there’s something more you can do. DJ Pon3 signing out.”