Isolation.
It is quite hard to live with, especially when you place it on yourself. I hope you never have to go through what I did. I could see my home, right down at the bottom of the hill. I couldn’t go down there though, not after what I had done.
I suppose you’ll be wanting to know what it is that caused me to isolate myself. It’s probably the most defining moment in my early life, and it led to another very important time in it.
Might as well tell you what happened, there’s no reason to keep it secret. I isolated myself because I killed both of my best friends, Flame Streak and Stonewall, during one of our trips. It was accidental, but that didn’t make me any less at blame in my eyes.
We had been surrounded by some Rangers. You know, those ponies in power armor. I suppose I should tell you more about that too. Well, here goes nothing...
*------------------------*
"Stone, C'mon, there's nothing here of interest." Looking over at my earth pony friend, I could see that he didn't agree. We were so far away from home at this point, it would take forever to find our way back. I wasn't even sure where we were any more.
"Have some sense of adventure Pyro, we've never been this far from home before. We should check it out, at least." Came the slate-gray pony's reply. "Besides, maybe this'll finally get you your cutie mark!"
Ugh, sometimes I hate how he knew just what to say to get me on board. I was the last of the three of us to get my cutie mark, and Stone never hesitated to point that fact out. Regardless, I followed after him with a resigned sigh, looking back at the red Pegasus that was Flame.
“You coming?” Flame jumped as I addressed him, and then responded with a single nod. Rolling my eyes at my friend’s typical lack of words, I jerked my head towards Stone, telling Flame to hurry up. He took to the sky and flew along with us, matching our speed as his orange mane blew around slightly in the breeze.
Eventually we came upon what looked like a bandit camp of sorts, and Flame flew ahead to scout it out. He was definitely the stealthiest of us three. Stone was useless at stealth, what with all that metal stuff clanging against each other. Honestly, I wasn’t too good at it either, but that was more due to me not caring to practice it.
When Flame came back, he looked like he had just seen something to make this trip worthwhile. Stone and I waited in slight impatience as Flame caught his breath.
“Th-there’s something in there! I d-don’t know w-what it is or what it d-does, but it looks helpful.” Flame stuttered out as a smile grew on Stone’s face.
Flame’s scouting had revealed no signs of the camp having any ponies currently in it, so we all went to see this thing Flame had found. Stealing from bandits was kind of like giving them a taste of their own medicine. When we got to the thing though, I groaned. It was too large for us to carry, especially with our equipment and supplies already weighing us down. Before we could figure out what to do however, a voice came from outside.
“You three come on out here. We know you’re in that tent, there ain’t any use in hidin’.” We looked at each other briefly before walking out slowly, my magic shield up to stop any surprise attacks. Thankfully, none came, and we stood facing a group of armored ponies. This armor was different than Stone’s though, it looked more technologically advanced.
“What’d ya think yer doin’? You tryin’ ta steal our tech?” The voice came from one of the armored ponies, what looked to be the most important one. I couldn’t see his face through the helmet, but I somehow got the idea that he was looking at us with disdain.
“Hey, sorry. Didn’t know it was yours. We thought this was a bandit camp, and we just came to check it out.” Stone said, stepping slightly in front of Flame and me. “Now, if you’ll just let us leave, we can forget this whole thing ever happened.”
“Nah, I think we’ll be havin’ some fun with you three.” The armored pony replied. In an instant, Stone, Flame, and me all had our weapons out and we stood at the ready. “Oooh, the foals have pig stickers.” With a solid thunk, he loaded both of the large guns at his sides. I got the feeling he was smiling evilly at us for some reason. “Scary.”
With that, he fired both guns. I immediately bolstered the shield with more magic, which proved just enough to stop the shots, but not to withstand them. After the initial shock that accompanies a failing shield, my anger surged at how these ponies were attacking us, and I charged the nearest enemy. I threw another shield up around myself as I jumped back and forth to avoid the machine gun of the pony I was charging. When I got to him, I leaped forward and wrapped my hooves around his neck, spinning on it and sitting myself upon his back. Then it was just a matter of hanging on as I savagely swung my sword with my magic.
I wasn’t sure how long I had been hanging on when I finally hit something vital and he seized up under me. After that, he didn’t move at all, he even stopped firing. It seemed even though I couldn’t get through the armor, but I could disable it. That was good enough. With my anger still burning inside me, I prepared to charge the next enemy. I was lost in a battle rage as I ran from enemy to enemy; eventually disabling each one I attacked.
Then Flame cried out, and suddenly I found myself standing between him and one of the armored ponies. How dare he hurt Flame? How dare they attack us for really no reason? Sure, we trespassed on their camp, but we didn’t actually do anything to it and we were willing to just leave them alone. But no, these jerks decided to attack us anyways. I could feel a strange warmth building up inside me as my anger grew. It continued to build up until it all came out at once and the world was lost into heat and flames.
And then darkness as I slipped into unconsciousness.
When I eventually came to, I was surrounded by death and destruction. The ground was black, as if it had been burned. A quick glance around showed that nothing remained within about a hundred feet of me in all directions. I didn’t see any signs of life…
Wait, no signs of life… Where were my friends? Ignoring the partially melted suits of armor that contained nothing but ash, I frantically searched for any sign of my friends.
I found Flame’s daggers first. They were both partially melted, and both too deformed to be of any further use. But, if these were here, then that likely meant… Flame was dead…
Now in a sort of daze, I continued searching for signs of Stone. After what seemed like forever, I located his armor. His shield had fused to the foreleg, and his sword lay nearby, too melted to be battle-worthy. I was rooted to the spot now, both my friends were dead. After a minute of stunned silence, I broke down crying.
It seemed like I had been there for hours on end before some mare approached me and offered a helping hoof up, a friendly smile on her face. “Shh, shh. I saw what happened, I can help you. Come with me, I’ll help you control it.” The mare said as I laid there, staring up at her. Eventually, I took her hoof and walked with her towards a small group of ponies. My mind clouded with grief, I simply followed after the group, not even asking where it was they were taking me.
*------------------------*
Oh, and did I mention that I got my cutie mark from this? It’s funny, I had wanted it pretty badly for a long time before I got it, and now I just want my friends back. The cost was not worth getting pictures of fireballs on my flanks. I would gladly trade them to get my friends back, but I know that isn’t going to happen.
You see, the flames that had killed my friends and all those Rangers had come from me, from my magic. That’s why I isolated myself for so long. Anyways, back to the story, those ponies took me and trained me to control my magic, as well as improve my fighting style. I trained with them for a good while before I left and went back to my home, which brings us back to where I started…
*-----------------------------*
“Ugh, come on Pyro. It’s just a short walk down the hill, you can do this.” I was trying to steel myself for the experience. My hooves wouldn’t obey me though. “No I can’t. I can’t face them after what I did.” With that, I hung my head and turned to leave.
I wasn’t watching where I was going at all, which only caused me to run into the black Pegasus that had position herself in my path. When I looked up, I saw Shadow, Flame’s older sister, looking down at me coldly, a few locks of her dark gray mane hanging in front of her eyes. I froze from the gaze and we stayed like that for a while.
“Oh, umm… Hi?” I ventured, trying to break the awkward silence and smiling a bit at her.
After another minute of silence from her, I stood up. Of course, that’s when she decided to respond by slugging me hard, and I was back on the ground a few feet away with a pain in my jaw.
“Oww! Shadow, I know it’s been awhile, but still!” I said, rubbing my cheek with a hoof. My sunglasses had landed a little bit away from me, but I didn’t bother picking them up yet.
“Where is he? WHERE. IS. FLAME?” Shadow said, yelling the last three words at me. All I could do was look anywhere but at her, and say nothing. “That’s what I thought.” She said after a minute, sadness permeating her voice. “Was… Did he suffer?”
I could barely hold back the tears at that point. I wanted to confess to her, that I had killed her brother, but I was afraid. That fear only served to make me angry at myself, which then caused a growl to try and escape me.
“He died in an instant, so I don’t think so.” I eventually managed to get out through the lump in my throat. When I finally looked at her again, my anger evaporated, leaving me feeling nothing but pity and sadness. Shadow had been silently crying over her brother since she learned of his death. I wanted to comfort her, but I was too afraid to do so. And there was that stupid fear again.
I could face down an entire group of enemies no problem, but I was being scared off from simply comforting a mare about her brother. What was wrong with me?
I eventually forced myself to embrace her and pulled her close, whispering to her. “It’s okay Shadow; I’ll make sure his death is repaid.” She remained there, crying softly into my shoulder, until she drew back and looked at me with a sniff.
“Really?” She asked, to which my response was a nod. “I’m c-coming with you then. I need to kill whoever ended my brother’s life.” She said, leaving no room for arguments. At least she already had all her stuff, she wouldn’t have to go back down and possibly alert others to my presence. I really didn’t want to face anypony in that town.
“You… You want to come with me?” I balked at her. She had never seemed to like me really, so this was a little strange. She nodded once and I let go of the embrace, backing up a few feet before sitting and holding my head in my hooves. Why? Why was this happening to me?
“Alright, you can come.” I said, taking my hooves away from my head and levitating my sunglasses back on to my face. “Let’s go.”
With that, we both headed off away from our home, off to the wastes.
Author's Note
So, this is the first chapter. Hope you liked it so far, I'm working on chapter two right now, but it may take a bit.
If you haven't yet, you should read Kkat's story, Fallout: Equestria. That story created the universe this story is based around, so... read it.
Well, this is exciting… Not really. I sighed as I walked down the road, alone and in silence. At least it felt like I was alone. Shadow was so far above me it was like she wasn’t even there, and it was frankly a little troubling. For some reason, it kept feeling like she was going to leave me behind, or that she would somehow discover that I had killed Flame then kill me without warning. It would be what I deserve, but it still frightened me.
I let out another sigh, which was responded to by Shadow shushing me. Looking up at her, she was much closer than before, and her ears were swiveling around with her head. She’s obviously on high alert from something nearby, but I had no idea what it was.
“Looks like bandits up ahead, be careful.” Shadow whispered down to me, still looking around. I still couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but might as well take her word for it, she probably had better eyes. Time to keep walking, I guess.
“Hey! You two stop where you are, we’ve got you surrounded!” Came a voice from a nearby hill. Looking over at the source showed what did in fact appear to be a bandit, a female one at that. Lo and behold, there were others in a somewhat large circle around us.
“Let me guess, you all want our stuff, and are willing to fight us for it. Am I right, or am I right?” I say with a sigh, staring the bandits down. That seemed to throw them off a bit, at least.
“Umm… Yeah… Give us all your stuff!” The mare shouted back after a pause. With a sigh and a slight bit of levitation, my sword was next to me in a second.
“Ready, Shadow? Looks like we’ll be fighting our way out, like usual.” I look over to the pegasus, and see she already has an assault rifle out. “Guess so… So then, who wants to go first?”
Of course, they all open fire at relatively the same time. Thankfully, I already had a shield covering the two of us, which held just long enough for me to set up a personal shield, which was much stronger due to less surface area, and charge through the collapsing shield.
I could feel every bullet hitting my magical shield as I charged a bandit, my longsword levitating next to me as I ran. I ducked under his clumsy attempt to hit me with the pistol in his mouth and, with a quick spin, swept his legs out from under him. Can’t stop, gotta keep it moving. Stopping meant wasting time, and the shield wouldn’t hold out forever. Burning his face off with a quick blast of fire dispatches him instantly. On to the next one.
“You guys ruined a perfectly good walk! Why you gotta disturb the peace like this?” I call as I dance around the next bandit and stab my sword through the back of her neck. A surge of flames along the blade makes sure she died. Have to remember not to do that too much, could warp the blade with the heat, not a good idea in the slightest.
Two down, eight to go on this half. The next one I turn to opens up with a smg, which probably would’ve done some damage had I still been standing in his line of fire. As it was, I came out of my teleportation right on top of the pony’s back, and stuffed an active grenade into his bag before launching myself off.
I landed in front of the next bandit, this one a unicorn, just before the grenade goes off and completely destroys the third bandit. This next one was wielding dual flamers on a battle saddle, which would’ve been a problem for any other pony this close up. The shower of blood and gore blinded me momentarily, just long enough to give the unicorn an opening. Wiping off the obscuring agents revealed nothing but a view obscured by fire. Unfortunately for the bandit, I had cast my fireproofing spell on myself as soon as I had seen the flamers. I simply diverted the flames coming out of the weapon, directing them back onto the source and incinerating the bandit with his own flames.
“Don’t you know? If you play with fire, you’re bound to get burned.” I say to the charred corpse before a bullet traveled through my shield and my right hind leg. The adrenaline was doing a good job as a painkiller, and I had no time to treat it in the middle of a fight, so I pressed on despite the pain in my leg.
The offending shot had come from a rifle that obviously used higher caliber bullets, if the barrel was any indication. The bandit seemed surprised that his attack had worked; probably due to the fact my shield had stopped all the other bullets directed at me. In any case, his pause gave me the perfect opportunity to charge him and get much closer to the stallion. He recovered just in time to meet my sword with his face.
“Almost done Shadow, how’s it going on your end?” I call as I turn towards the last one. This one a pegasus mare wielding a sword and with a large rifle on her back.
“Oh dandy. You do realize it’s hard to not hit you by accident when you keep going through my firing zone, right?” Came Shadow’s reply, immediately followed by the firing of her assault rifle. She was a great shot with that thing, hitting her target with practically every shot.
The fact that she was doing this and preforming aerial maneuvers at the same time only made it more impressive.
Can’t focus on that now; have to take out the bandits first. This mare was smarter and quicker than her companions, and she managed to block the swipe I made at her neck. A small smile crept over my face as we stared at each other. She was helpless, her weapon tied up keeping my sword away from her neck, and the fact she couldn’t grab any more, meant that I had the upper hand. I, with nothing really to restrict my movement, I prepared to blast her with a spell. Before I released the energy, she smacked my horn and the spell fizzled out pitifully, and caused me to drop the sword in my levitation. She then grabbed me by my wounded leg and pulled me to the ground before taking to the air.
I had to look up at her across the length of my body as I tried and failed to focus through the pain. We were just getting higher and higher, and soon this would become a problem. Well, a bigger one than it already was. Struggling seemed to slow the upwards progress, but didn’t get me free. Suddenly, there was no more pressure on my leg, and there was a moment of complete silence as her form became smaller.
Shit! I turned around in mid-air only to see the ground rushing up to greet me. This is going to hurt. I managed to roll somehow when I hit the ground… not sure how… which lessened the damage, though I was still out of it for a little while. Lucky for me this mare had horrible aim as she tried to finish me off. Maybe it was because she was flying? Can’t say for sure, but that made sense, right? It was hard to think through the pain in my head. Thankfully, after two more shots, everything became quiet. Well, save for the meaty thunk of the mare’s body hitting the ground, a new hole in her head.
“Hey, Pyro, get up.” Shadow said, poking me with a hoof. Groaning was a good response, let’s do that. I groaned in response, and she simply rolled her eyes before trotting off. At least, I assumed she rolled her eyes, I wasn’t actually looking at her. “Wimp.”
Well, that wasn’t very nice. Cracking an eye open, I grabbed her forelegs in my magic and made her trip. Smiling, I shakily got to my hooves and walked/limped over to Shadow, who was righting herself from her previous position of her butt in the air and her face on the ground.
“Have a nice trip?” I asked, trying to sound innocent of any wrong. That’s a hard thing to pull off with guilt eating away at you from the inside.
“Real mature.” She said simply before trotting off again. She didn’t sound like she had approved, but I swear I saw a smile on her face when she turned away. Ah well, more mystery fuel for the enigma that was Shadow Streak. With a smirk, I followed, sheathing my sword as we left the dead bandits behind us. They had sealed their fate the moment they attacked us.
It didn’t take long for me to catch back up to Shadow, despite my wounded leg, as she wasn’t moving all that fast. Once I caught up though, she increased her speed so that we were moving along at a good pace. It still wasn’t all that fast, but all things considered, it was pretty good.
Aside from various wildlife, some of which were burned to a crisp after trying to attack us, the trip was devoid of contact with any living creatures. Fine by me though, a quiet walk is rare in the wasteland. Soon enough, a town came into view on the horizon, which served to spur the two of us on so that we could reach the town that much quicker. It was getting dark, and sleeping inside the relative safety of a town sounded like a much better option than doing so out in the wastes where there was a much higher chance of attack.
Shadow seemed to agree, as she flew off ahead, to talk to the guards, if I were to guess. Last time I checked, she had been a guard for our home town, so she probably knew what she was doing.
By the time I got up to the gate, it was already open and Shadow was already inside, waiting for me. Giving a nod to the guards as I passed them, they simply watched me pass warily, as if I were about to gut them at any moment. Well, that was a little confusing, but whatever.
Just keep going, it’s probably nothing.
We walked together in silence again as we made our way towards where we would be staying overnight. Shadow seemed upset by something, but I couldn’t really tell what it was that had her fur in a bunch.
Apparently we would be sleeping in a separate shack from all the others. It was a bit of a walk from the gate, but still within the wall, so I couldn’t really complain about it too much. As soon as we were inside, Shadow practically bucked the door off its hinges from kicking it closed behind her.
“What is the Cult of the Phoenix? “ She asked grumpily before I had a chance to say anything. Cult of the what now? I had never heard of anything like this before, and I was failing to come up with any sort of response to her question.
“Ugh, come on Pyro, tell me! Those guards out there said you were a part of the cult, and they seemed afraid of you simply because of this, so tell me what it is!” She yelled in my face when I didn’t respond.
Now I was even more confused. Why would they think I was part of this cult if they didn’t even know me? This didn’t make much sense at all, really.
“I… I don’t know… I’ve never heard of them before…” I said, staring her down in the process in hopes that she would let me go. I could fight my way off, but I didn’t really want to fight her.
With a huff, she withdrew, letting me stand up as she watched me. I got the distinct feeling that she didn’t believe me, but there wasn’t really anything I could do about that.
“You better not be lying to me, Pyro.” She warned, her eyes narrowed at me.
“Nope, no lying going on here.” I replied, holding my forehooves up defensively, as if that would convince her. All it really did was remind me of my wounded leg as it buckled under the pressure, making me fall to the side in pain.
“Stupid bullets. Why do they have to hurt so much?” I asked rhetorically, looking down at the hole in my leg.
“They’re just mean like that.”
Wait… Who’s voice was that? Looking over at the source revealed a unicorn stallion that looked like he was a doctor. When had he gotten here? I opened my mouth, but was cut off as he grabbed my injured leg in his magic so he could look at it, causing me to yelp instead of actually ask anything.
“Hmm… Clean through… How long ago was this?”
“Oh, miles back. He wasn’t complaining about it, so I figured it was fine.”
“You walked miles on that leg? Impressive, but stupid. Don’t you two have any healing potions you could’ve used?”
“Umm… No, not currently…” I finally spoke up, wincing as my leg shifted in the doctor’s grasp. Then he began pouring a healing potion into the wound before giving me the rest to drink. It didn’t taste that good, but medicine wasn’t made for its taste.
“There, you should be better soon. Just don’t strain yourself until the wound closes. We’ll see about your payment once you’ve healed up.” He said, standing up again and trotting back outside, shutting the door behind him.
“Well, I suppose we should get some shut-eye…” Shadow said after a bit of awkward silence. Nodding in response, I simply used my magic to get my bed ready before dragging myself over to it, climbing in and falling asleep soon after.
Author's Note
Well, I finally finished this chapter. Sorry it took forever, I had writer's block for a really long time, and then I had to find time to actually write once I got an idea of what to do. Speaking of which, I feel like I've got too many long-term ideas and no idea what to do in the meantime.
Hopefully this is fine, just keep in mind I'm not much of a writer. At least, I don't see myself as one.
Once again, I wish to thank Kkat for creating this wonderful world.
