Tales by Balefirelight (a Fallout: Equestria Group Collab)

Craterby Scattershot

Slowly, slowly I lift my hooves over the window sill.  Slower still, I pull myself up until my eyes can just barely peek through the triple-reinforced glass.  Just as we were told, just like the radio said.  The lights, the fire, the death.

The bombs.

I watch in horrified fascination as the lights fade into dust and that dust forms a giant mushroom.  I can’t hear the panic behind me, but I know that it’s happening.  Ponies banging on doors, on glass, flipping beds.  Let us out!  Let us out!

I don’t hear them, I just watch.  I watch as something glints in the sky.  Watch as it grows bigger.  Watch as it falls right outside my window.  Light, noise, pain, thump, everything glows and everything hurts…

…

Slowly, slowly I lift my hooves over the window sill.  Slower still, I pull myself up until my eyes can just barely peek through the triple-reinforced glass.  Just as we were told, just like the radio said.  The lights, the fire, the death.

The bombs…

*****

“It’s not hostile…”  I say, watching the ghoul pull itself over the lip, only to fall again.

“Not yet.”  My partner says, aiming his rifle.

I watch the cycle repeat, my rad suit insulating me from the poisonous green goop all around us.  Crawl up, gaps at something, fall back down.  “What do you think its problem is?”

“Don’t know.”  Blam!  The ghoul’s head explodes.  “Don’t care.”

We watch the body slide down one last time, settling in the remains of a prison cell.  “How long had it been doing that?”  I asked.  “Since the bombs fell?”

“Don’t know.”

I look up and through the tinted glass I can see dozens of other ghouls milling about the bowels of the crater that was once a maximum security prison.  As we descended into the crater, I noted the number on the ghoul’s cell door, 205.

*****

My hooves tap away at the keyboard, backing out of the system several times as my bulky suit hits incorrect keys.  Eventually, I get the system open and a prisoner log appears on the screen.  I sigh and turn to my partner who is watching the door for more ghouls.  “It’s not here either, let’s move on.”  He nods and starts to leave the room, but something catches my eye as I step away from the terminal.

“Wait up.”  I call back, selecting the entry that sparked my interest, “Cell 205”.

I scan the entry.  The data is corrupted with age to the point that even the pony’s name is gone, but I get the gist of it.

“What is it?”  He asks.

“It’s an entry on that ghoul from the lip.”  I say.  “Apparently he was locked up for protesting the war, but they ignored the fact that the evidence never said he was involved in the riot that he was arrested at.”  I rub my chin, though I can’t really feel it through the rubber suit.  “Didn’t you mention something about your brother…?”

I don’t finish my question as the screen explodes.  I scream and leap back from my partner, pointing his gun at the destroyed screen.  The long silence is broken only by the hissing machinery before he says “Let’s go”.  Without waiting to see if I’ll follow, my ghoul partner turns and ventures back into the crater.