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.