Tales by Balefirelight (a Fallout: Equestria Group Collab)

Fixation

by Sophos

My sweat soaked through my coat and the first layer of the thick, dark robes weighing down my supple frame, but the Sun and wool were not the sole sources of the heat. My heart thumped in my chest faster than I thought Equinely possible.

“Revenge.” The word passed through my lips without the force to escape my wrappings.

“Halt!” Somepony called from behind me, but I didn't turn around.

“Revenge.” I exhaled again. The city was bustling, perhaps they were speaking to somepony else.

“HALT I SAY!” I picked up my pace, purposely shoving down every passerby in reach of my hooves. Beneath my hood, the corners of my mouth turned up despite the woven resistance tightly wrapped across my muzzle. When I was out of Ponies to shove I galloped; eyes trained on a central square, the robes tightened around my crotch.

“REVENGE! For my family! For my friends! I will never be without them again!” I screeched as I reached the square. Two guards were on hot pursuit, though one had tripped over one a passerby.  I looked to the white castle hanging on the side of the mountain, on the far side of the city. I tore off my outermost robe, the Sun glinted off the bulky device strapped to my chest. “SIC SEMPER NIGHTMARES!!!” I kicked a switch on the device, and the onlookers had scarcely time to gasp in horror before the world went...

*****************************************

Pink. Then black. My eyes opened to pink veiled ruins, both stone and flesh, indistinguishably formed. Warped, eroded, and overlapping; one, no more than a melted statuette, moaned while another writhed. The writhing one had metal jutting from its exposed skin and, in one great convulsion, tore an appendage free from a fleshy mass that might have once been another Pony.

“HRWAAAAGH.” The metal one roared, pink vapors escaping the orifices of its skull. Then, it crawled. My body was wrapped more tightly now, more tightly than skin, and grossly restricted my movements. My muzzle fought itself open and reached for a knife handle at my side. Handle and cloth between my teeth, I yanked out a blade with a sound like tearing papyrus. I rammed the leather-coated blade through my chest, just over the metal breastplate, and obscuring pink vapor spewed from the wound; it stopped a moment later, and the blade was no more. The metal one advanced. My hooves lifted one after another and, in a mockery of our previous chase, we stumbled through the wreckage. The pink hid everything more than twenty feet away, but my hooves proceeded. After what felt like a lifetime, I came to the cliffs edge. My weight shifted to my haunches- “HRAAAWAAGH!”

Black. Pink. Black.

Tongue Tied

Cold and dark and damp. The sewer smelled like old meat and sulfur. Tears ran down either side of my face, mixing with the water and blood and Celestia-knows-what. The filly in my hooves gasped for the last time.

“Don't.” Sobs echoed like the steady drops filling the sewer. “Don't you worry, Ah'm gonna get them back! So this never happens to anypony evah again.” A soft green glow enveloped a rifle with a grenade launching attachment. Judging from the weight, it was loaded. Still sobbing my body charged through the dank sewer, in the direction of the smell. Soon enough, we came upon and through a door. A cluster of ghouls, one was glowing. A hoof kicked the panel, closing the door.

“HSSSS-AH.” The glowing one rose from its obelisk, and led a charge. The rifle fired everything. Only too late, did my eyes catch the swirling light of the Balefire egg placed against the obelisk like a relic.

*****************************************

“C.B. are you in there!” I tasted muck and ash, I tried to spit but realized my teeth were exposed. My eyes opened wide, one underwater, revealing a small corpse-lit room. “C.B. are you in there!” Somepony's muffled voice called from behind the door. “We heard an explosion, but we can't get the door open!”

“Hggggggggth...” Coughing, I rose to my hooves and walked to the door; it was bowed outward and welded shut. I needed help. “Hel...”

“I think I heard something! Everypony get over here! C.B. is it you!”

“HEL...EEe” I rattled, realizing how hard it was to pronounce a ''P'' or a ''M'' without lips.

“What the fu- What was that!?”

“HEL..!”

“Let's get out of here, now!” The voice faded. “C.B. where are you?” And was gone.

“hel....”

Not Again

“I b-bet'cha wondering where I got th-that-those last two!”

I felt like the chair I was strapped to might mold me to it. Now that the doctor's little movie night over, I gave her my critique. “Let me GO you sick, demented bitch!”

“Now-ow I c-can't do that.” She shoved a needle into my skull.

“HUH, HOW, why can't I feel that!”

“D-D-Do-Don't w-worry, I'm almost certain this w-will work!”

“I didn't ask that! Why am I even here!” I fought all I could, despite the circumstances.

“I've been st-st-” She cleared her throat. “...studying-ING ghoulification for over a century! It's been my s-soul obsesh-obsession! And f-finally I am ninety-five percent confi-confideh-sure that it has somethin-ng to do with genes and h-hate. If only I had m-memory of my own incident, I might have fin-NG-got here sooner. I'm s-sorry, but you are a p-perfect specimen.”

“YOU are crazy.” I told the decrepit zombie for the millionth time.

“What we're d-doing c-can save Ponykind, you'll be a hero! B-B-But don't let that k-keep you from-m detesting me with every fiber of y-your being.” She grinned in her twisted grotesque attempt at cheer. She flicked switches, turned dials, and pulled levers. Glowing hot lights shone directly on me and though I couldn't feel a thing, I could smell my coat searing.

“What, what if this doesn't work.” I spat at her. She rubbed her chin, a flurry of sepia flakes cascading from it.

“D-Don't-cha have a brother?”