Fallout: New Pegasus

Peeking through the blood in her eyes, Mixxie looked for her savior. A shadow walked out of the forest, rifle aimed at Mixxie, ''What are you doing in the forest, you know it isn't safe.''

The colt walked over to Mixxie, stimpak held in his mouth, to help dull the pain that she must have been in. Mix Tape looked at him curiously, wondering why he would go out of his way to save her, a random pony in the post-apocalyptic world. Then with a sudden realization, she recognized the generous pegasus.

''Lightning Strike, is that you?''

He whirled around, taking a closer look at Mix Tape. "How do you know my name?"

"You used to work with my brother, Fire Star."

Lightning cocked his head, thinking of when he may have met his best friend's sister.

“Do you remember when my brother was showing off to the mares, and he created the fire star in the sky?”

“Hah, wasn’t that all the time?”

“Well, you got a bit tired of it one day, and flew right through the star, with lightning trailing behind you. You showed him up that day, and deflated his ego a bit.”

“Ahh, I remember now, You were the young filly who got my attention because someone stole your notebook!”

“That was my favorite notebook!”

“Well, the notebook is the least of our worries right now, we need to keep up moving or else we aren’t going to make it. Stay with me and you will be safe.”

"Fine. Besides, I now owe you my life."

Lightning Strike walked into the Everfree forest, seemingly aimlessly as he guided Mix Tape to his campsite nearby. However, he noticed that something felt off about her, zeroing in on her left studded ear that kept twitching in various different directions while the other stood stock still. Despite this, he simply dismissed the action as being nerves.

“When you get to the site, don’t light any fires, the food is cooked by the radiation already. The light from the fire will attract unnecessary attention.”

Mix Tape and Lightning Strike walked into the remains of the Everfree forest, avoiding large patches of dark magic, remnants of what had fallen to Equestria years before. Mix Tape trailed behind Lightning, following every footstep, when she realized something was very wrong. Her new traveling companion was missing something very close to him. When he was a member of the Royal Guard of Equestria, he was prided for his large, powerful wings, a sign of a strong and agile pegasus.

“Lightning… I don’t mean to pry… but where are your wings? Did you lose them in a fight or something? I uh… I understand if you don’t want to talk about it.”

He smiled, and laughed.

“Oh those? That was years before the war even began. After you ran away from home and opened up your own business in Ponyville, Princess Celestia was put under multiple threats of assassination. I was eventually assigned as a personal guard, working 24/7 to protect her. One day as her and I were walking around the Royal Garden, a trip-mine exploded, meant to hurt or even kill the Princess. I took most of the blast in the process, saving her life. Unfortunately, when they brought me to the hospital, my wings were too far destroyed to save, forcing me to have my wings removed permanently. Fat load of good it did to save her life though, now we are stuck in this mess.”

He continued walking as Mix Tape stood there in awe. Thinking about what she had just heard, Mix Tape was surprised to see Lightning act so nonchalant about it. She ran up to catch up with him as she noticed his flank fading into the darkness.

“But weren’t you not able to fly? It would drive me crazy!”

Lightning laughed again, “Everything drives you crazy, but yes, it did for a bit. My drive to aid the princess is what brought me back to sanity. I knew that I would never be able to fly again unless I had some contraption put on my back, but I wouldn’t feel like me anymore. I want to be me, and wingless Lightning is here to stay!”

Mix Tape smiled as she saw her old friend beaming as though he didn’t have a care in the world. However, that little bit of happy moment quickly changed, as the dark thoughts from the back her head began filling her mind. Her ear began twitching violently, and she began looking around wildly, almost in fear, mumbling to herself. Lightning raised an eyebrow quizzically, wondering what was happening to the mare. He could only catch snippets of what she was saying, none of which made any sense, until he realized that she was having a full conversation...with herself.

“Did you see that?!” “Yeah, I did!!” “How big do you think that...thing was?” “Oh, at least 10 feet long!” “10 feet?! No way!”

“Mix Tape, are you ok?”

She never responded, blindly following Lightning as he carefully guided her to the campsite. The muttering slowly tailed off as they drew closer to the site with Mix Tape growing tired and drowsy. Her pack was dragging in the dirt by the time they were close, with Mix Tape leaned up against Lightning Strike heavily for support. Laying out a sleeping pad for her to sleep on, he lowered her to the ground, and pulled his only blanket over her shaking and resting body.
Then, Lightning proceeded to booby trap the site, arming bombs and placing noisemakers to wake him up if anything unknown approached him while he was asleep. A sharp can cut his hoof as he hung it up. Hissing with pain, Lightning licked the cut, cleaning the wound before covering it with a somewhat clean bandage. Digging in with his rifle, Lightning curled up for a night of restless sleep. His eyes closed, slipping into the nightmare he had every night.

~~~

Screaming threw open my eyes, and I jumped out of bed to see what was the matter. My wife had already left the bed, and was nowhere to be seen. The screaming continued, ringing in my ears as a galloped around my house, looking for signs of trouble. Yelling wildly for my wife, I kicked open the door, only to see my wife disappear into the night. Only one thing could be seen in the night, a white pony, with a wild, blue mane. Galloping in chase, I was too slow after my injury to keep up. As I watched my only love disappear into the forest, a realization came to me. This was my fault… If I wouldn’t have turned on the lights in the night, especially after the megaspells fell, all of this would not have happened today. I…. I put my wife in danger, and now she’s gone… It’s all my fault! Everything is fading… fading to black… Why can’t I breathe? Why can’t I… see? Am… I… Bleeding?