Tales by Balefirelight (a Fallout: Equestria Group Collab)

Liveby Tylertlat

I was alive for the first time in months. I'd been a trader back then. Then one of the guards had found a landmine with her hoof, and I was unlucky enough to be standing next to her. I'd woken up, my body shattered, with an explosive metal yoke about my neck. And you couldn't call that 'living', anymore than you could call that zombified thing holding my radio-leash 'alive'.

Since then he'd continued to prey upon caravans, and it'd used my carcass to help him. Occasionally another victim would survive, and wake up to the same fate. Most refused to prey upon their former companions. They were sold or killed, whichever made the most profit for the ghoul. But with every sundered caravan, I secreted away a few caps. From every slain guard, I pocketed a few junk rounds that wouldn't be missed. Slowly but safely I gained enough currency worked to buy my life back.

The riskiest part was just making the purchase. The ghoul had grown to trust me, and used me to carry his stuff to markets. It didn't trust me enough to let me talk to anypony though, so I had to set up the purchase through slipped notes and dead drops. If the ghouls saw me, he would've killed me. If the I couldn't find a buyer, or was scammed, I would remain dead. But somehow things worked out. I left a bag of caps, ammo, and trinkets in a particularly sharp tangle of rebar and scrap, and when we returned I found it replaced by a fragile looking device made of wonderglue, wires, and scuffed up gems. It's  blinking light turned solid as I picked it up. Apparently, the device would scan for the frequency of my collar and overwhelm it with an “all-clear” signal, rendering the ghouls detonator harmless. Now I just had to wait until we were out of public.

As we back to camp to the ghouls camp, where the other slaves were kept, I kept a lookout for possible weapons and witnesses. The best seemed to be a vacant area and a large, long dead branch. So I picked it up.

“Put that down” the ghoul growled.

“Muck ou” I spat out around the tree branch, as I slowly walked towards him. That seemed to surprise the ghoul for a moment.

“I thought you cared more about your life than that” the ghoul threatened in faux concern. He then made a show of taking out the detonator. I could've killed it right there, and let my device replace its short-range stay-close-to-master signal. Heck, with this device, I could've just walked away when it turned its back. But I wanted to see its reaction when it realized I'd cut it's strings. To enjoy it's terror when it realized I was alive again, and it was about to die. So I revealed my device, and glared at him in smug satisfaction.

“What is that, a flashlight?” It asked in annoyed confusion. Then I saw comprehension dawn.

“Ah fuck, you think you got some magic radio that'll save you?” That was my cue, I began to stalk towards it again. “Well it won't. You still got two choices. Live”, it ranted out, as it cowered back from me. Then it shook the detonator, continuing “or Die. You are worth more to me alive! You wanna die?!”

“My choss WIV” I shouted swinging my head back to strike.

BOOM!