Fallout Equestria: The Fallen

The next few weeks flew by in a blur honestly. Teddy Dunwich is a tricky stallion to track. Then again his trail is two hundred years old. Still, everything I found was… unsettling.

My next location was another M.O.M facility. This one located partly built into a mountain side.

"Alright…now let's see what horrors I'm going to find in the deep places…" I sighed, hating that they now had to dig into a Celestia forsaken mountain.

It didn't take that long to unearth the entrance. Some light explosives and my new magic got enough out of the way that I was able to squeeze through and find the door. It was wide open, rusted in place and dusty as all hell. Already at my hooves lay skeletons of various ponies.

Must of been stuck here when the bombs went off and the entrance collapsed.

"Poor bastards…" I shook my head. "Just a little too late…"

I walked past the bones and through the rusted door. Inside was covered in inch thick layers of dust with surprisingly clean air. Huh. Vents must still be good. Meaning they either died from dehydration or starvation…

I walked around, finding mostly office equipment and some bits of scrap. So far nothing robotic or evil.

"*Chew*" Taser sneezed as they jumped up on a dusty desk.

"Surprised you can sneeze Taser." I said honestly. "Find anything?"

"Meow." The cyber cat replied as it pawed at the dust.

I began looking through more of the building, finding little of interest aside from spare parts for electrical stuff, tools, and scrap metal and electrics.

All it all this place seemed to be just an office building. If my time looting M.O.M facilities taught me anything, its that these places always have some form of secrets hidden from the everyday employees.

"Find anything hidden Taser?" I asked, knowing my cyber kitty could find things I wouldn't normally find.

I checked the dust he pawed at, seeing he found a chipped key card under all the dust. The body was all metal and the small chip near the top side of it meant it was made to last and would not be easily replaced.

"Good job Taser." I smiled. "Now, let's find where this keycard goes to."

I picked the card up and looked around. Majority of these doors were all basic locks. Eventually I reached the main offices and found it had a keycard reader.

Inserting the card the lock clicked open and I walked in.

Inside this room was what seemed to be a makeshift interrogation room. A desk with one table, two chairs, and an old dusty holotapes recorder sat with only a dim light bulb hung from the ceiling keeping the room lit.

“Alright…let’s see if the holorecorder has anything in it.” I hummed, walking over and checking the old as shit device.

I rewound the tape and hit play.

"Mr. Dunwich I really don't see how-"

"Tell me something Mr. Neon Lights, when you sing, you put all your heart and soul into the vocals, yes?"

"Well, yeah. Any artist worth a damn does."

"And yet so many ponies can still sing by second nature. So what differs between the two? Why do you raise to fame and fortune while others go unnoticed?"

"Effort. Luck?"

"The soul, Neon Lights. Simply put, some souls burn brighter, shine longer and can send that essence out into their works. Music, art, acting, all of it really but music is where the soul Truly sends bits of itself out."

"Uh huh. And what does that have to do with these special robots?"

"Simply put, my recording device can capture these soul essences with the vocals better than any holotapes or vinyl record."

"Right… and you can prove this… how."

"Are you tired, Neon Lights?"

"Just… just…"

Thud!

"Hm. This new one works much faster than I expected."

The audio clicked out from there.

"Oh…shit…" I said worriedly.

He refined his crazy soup stealing voice recorder and made it faster?!

"Damn. Gotta respect the guys Spellcraft. At that speed a normal soul stealing artifact would typically inflict great pain on the victim." My talking dark magic book said.

"This is very concerning, cause of he's just…able to siphon souls with a minor conversation, then he could be getting Celestia knows how many souls…"

"Wonder if he could steal Celestia's soul if given the chance? Bet her soul Tastes like cake."

"No idea, and I'd rather not know." I said carefully.

"I'd very much like to know."

"You would…" I grumbled. "Alright, so he's probably been in…every M.O.M facility…shit…"

"Maybe. Question is why was the M.O.M using him? While they focused on moral of the kingdom they also operated as homeland security. I really doubt he was just here to make animatronics that were run off of stolen souls."

"Yeah, there has to be something more to this…something very bad…"

"Like an army of Ducks… or Goats…"

"Why would ducks or goats be scary?" I asked carefully.

"I don't wanna talk about it…"

"Surprising." I chuckled. "Normally you would talk about a lot of horrid shit, but ducks and goats got you quiet?"

"Let's just say there are some cosmic horrors even I draw a line at. Anyway, if he's using souls and giving them mechanical bodies and rewriting their personalities in the process there are a few possible things he could be working towards."

“A giant robot army hell bent on ruling the multiverse?” I took a wild guess.

"No, that would take way longer and he'd already have needed to have Concorde and rule over a whole planet for that to be a possibility. No, I think he's trying to make his own body into a Soul Jar."

“And…what in Tartarus is that?”

"Basically a soul jar is what happens when you take an unloving item, like a rock or book, and shove a soul, or part of a soul, into it. Makes them basically indestructible, have a minor influence over anyone using them and depending on how the soul jar is built can be like a form of golem. But if he is trying to turn his body into a Soul Jar then that's a longer, way more complex process."

“Sounds like being a Lich with extra steps.” I frowned. “But how complicated is this?”

"Well normally it can't be done. The amount of souls and various consciousnesses that would be inhabiting the body would drive him mad and he'd be lost to the sea of souls in his own body leaving him an immortal vegetable. Unless he manages to wipe them of all they are/were and imprints his own mentality into them. Then he and the copy minded soul would merge mentally into one like nothing happened. Physically, he'd be alive. Functionally, he'd be immortal. Indestructible."

“Well…shit.” I said carefully.

"Pay off is good though. A body that won't age, dye, dehydrate or starve to death, or suffocate, and can still sleep, eat, drink and Fuck. All the positives, none of the negatives. No pain either cause so little can hurt you at that point."

“Right…so, considering this bastard has probably had a very long ass time to do this, how likely is it that they achieved their goal?”

"Eh. Maybe halfway? At most. The body is made up of lots of parts and organs and such. Putting a soul into each takes a while. Every bone, joint, piece of cartilage, heck the skeleton alone would take hundreds of souls."

“And what if he just…made a robot and just shoved souls into that body instead of doing it the long way?”

"Cause then he wouldn't be able to enjoy life while also being immortal. You'd go insane going from being able to feel, touch, smell, taste, all that to not feeling anything physically, or able to taste."

"What about the other animatronics?" I questioned.

"Probably early experimentation with the soul magic."

"Right…" I sighed. "But we at least have a time frame…how long would you guess if he's 'half way there'?"

"Well, assuming he got his larger bones, skin and important organs, using necromancy to preserve his flesh longer than normal or a ghoul… I'd say his skin is already done. Main bones, skull, legs, heart… hard to tell exactly."

“Crap…” I sighed. “We need to hurry to try and find him and stop some of his bullshit.”

"If you're gonna want to hurt him as he is or complete, you'll need a weapon that can hurt the soul and flesh. Or, a God Slayer weapon."

“And how in the world am I supposed to get something like that?”

"You are literally working for a guy who sells everything and anything."

Oh yeah, right… Shopkeeper.

“Now, the better question is, will he sell it to me or would the other’s be upset that I’m getting a god killing weapon?” I wondered.

"Knowing Shopkeeper, he will, and, probably. Worst case scenario, the planet blows up."

“I’d rather have the planet not blow up, thank you very much.” I huffed.

"Hey it's not like the alternative is better."

“I mean…yeah, but still.” I said honestly. “So…gonna need a whole lotta caps to get something like that…”

"Or do something stupid and find one."

“That’s probably the more likely option…” I sighed.

"So, looting aside want to learn some stuff?"

"Yes, I would like to learn some stuff."

"Finally. Now, you'll need some bones, plenty around, and that bottle of whiskey, and… crap, there's no yellow cap mushrooms here."

"Do we need the mushrooms?" I inquired.

"For the potion I'm thinking of, yes."

"So, probably off to shopkeep for that." I shrugged.

"Probably. Want me to use a sleep spell?"

“Well…this place should be safe enough.” I nodded. “So, let’s go see Shopkeep.”

"A god killing weapon?" Shopkeeper asked. "Hm. Well, sure but what kind of form do you want it to be in?"

“I can have it in other forms?” I inquired. “What other forms are there?”

"Guns, swords, blades, bows, bombs. Take your pick."

I hummed at that, thinking about what weapon I could really use. “Hmm, what pistol would you recommend?”

"The Divine Reaper." He said, pulling up a chrome and black pistol, elegantly forged and engraved in symbols and runes I had no idea what they meant. The frame of the barrel was shaped like an open dragons skull, the eye sockets glowing with a purple aura.

“Oooh, me likey.” I said with a smile. “What caliber does it shoot?”

"Yes."

“Nice.” I said with a giant smile “So…how much does this cost?”

"Thirty six octillion caps."

“Never mind…” I said slowly.

"Relax. I know a place where you can steal one."

“Uh…are you sure?” I asked carefully. “Cause something this stupidly pricey would probably be kept locked up tight.”

"Oh relax the guy who has it has like nine others. He's just a hoarder."

“Oh…okay.” I said honestly. “Now where do I find this guy?”

"I'll open a portal. Also take whatever else you want/find and kill as many of his guards as you want, they're immortal anyway so it at least gives you a few hours before they heal back."

“Uh…right…and hopefully this won’t make me his number one enemy…”

"Eh, depends." Shopkeep said, snapping his fingers and opening a portal.

I jumped in and… what the Fuck?

The whole area was made of flesh, gore and corpses. All formed into walls, floor, ceilings, furniture decorations, and ECT.

“What?” I muttered in absolute horror.

"I like this guy's style."

“I don’t…let’s just…find what we’re looking for and get the hell out of here…” I muttered, carefully moving through this fleshy hell.

Each hoof step had a squelching noise. I came across a window and saw everything outside was… also all flesh… and on fire.

"Neat."

“Seriously, where the hell are we?” I asked in disgust.

"If I were to guess… a variation of hell. Or Ohio."

“What’s Ohio?” I asked. “Sounds like a Bar Fight rather than whatever this is.”

"Eh, depends on the county."

I walked down into a huge room, where flying limbless torsos with their ribs split, cracked and reshaped into maws began to fly down at me.

"Awh cool, torso demons."

I blinked. “Uh…” I muttered in absolute horror. “I hate this…”

I immediately took aim and shot the things full of holes til they hit the ground with a meaty wet thump.

“Gross…” I shuddered in disgust.

"Actually they are quite tasty."

“Didn’t need to know that.” I sighed.

"Go on. Eat them."

“Just because I’m a ghoul doesn't mean I eat meat.” I frowned.

"Hey you'll need all the help you can get fighting Dunwich. Necromancy magic can only go so far, so you'll also need to augment your body."

"It's still…very wrong…" I said, shaking my head as I tried to eat the corpse bitterly.

"Oh don't be such a baby. Here."

I felt a tingle across my tongue right before I bit into the creature- Holy crap that's good! Why is it good?

"What did you do?" I asked carefully.

"You're welcome. It's called the Predators Pallet. It's a spell that helps one augment their own bodies by eating the corpses of their enemies. It also helps with taste should the one doing the eating not naturally be that of a predatory species. Also it gives you neat retractable fangs."

“Uh…huh…” I said carefully. “So…good to know that…” I said, still feeling uncomfortable with eating meat. “So…why did you want me to eat this?”

"Odds are you'll need the edge in strength and healing and such if Dunwich is as proficient with necromancy as I'm expecting."

“True…” I sighed, continuing to eat the thing before heading off to find where the gun is.

As I walked I had to admit, I felt… better. Not like, normal, like before becoming a ghoul but… stronger. Like when I get really irradiated and the stuff is making my scrapes and wounds heal.

I learned quick these retractable fangs come out at will, are on my upper and lower jaw, cover/merge with my existing teeth, and honestly look better than the teeth I do still have.

I came across a new area. It was all still flesh but here were weapon racks and holders made from skin, bones and shelves made from spines and organs holding what appeared to be ammo.

"Okay, found an armory. Let's hope the thing is here."

“This is still really gross…” I muttered, walking around the armory carefully as I know there has to be some form of security here.

"It's hell. You think trees grow here or rocks aren't molten? They work with what they got. It's actually really impressive."

Looking around I couldn't see the gun Shopkeeper showed me was anywhere. I did find a large skull with glowing red eyes fixed on the wall, it's maw shut tight.

"That looks like a Demonic Security Safe."

“And…how do I open it?” I inquired, knowing that’s probably where the real good stuff is.

"It needs the demonic energy signature of the demon or devil that crafted it. Lucky for you, your new power can let you take his demonic energy. All you need to do is find him, kill or cripple him, then eat him."

“Uh…I don’t think that would be possible if this person is rich enough to just…own god killing weapons…”

"Don't worry, I can help you out here. I'm just gonna need to borrow your body for a bit."

“And are you sure that’s gonna be a good idea?” I asked carefully, not sure if he’d try to body snatch me if I gave consent to this.

"Yes. I know you don't trust me, which in all fairness is normally the smart thing to do but Pain told me not to bring you harm or cross you. And I'd rather not piss off my mom."

“That would be a good enough reason not to hurt me, yes.” I nodded. “Pain being ‘the end of the universe incarnate’ and pissing them off is one thing, but that being your mother and upsetting them is another…”

"Yeah. Well, technically she is my creator, but mother sounds less like she's, well, an All Maker. She prefers it. Hates all that worship and cult crap."

”Sounds about right.” I nodded. “So…I suppose I should give you some control if you’re not going to do something dumb with my body.”

"Trust me. I have a feeling I know this guy."

With that, I gave Glosck control. It felt weird being in the back seat of my own body. I imagine this is what sleep paralysis is like.

After wandering for a while Glosck came upon a giant being of scorched red skin, pale white eyes, two horns protruding from their head and two large wings, bleeding and torn spread wide from their back. "A mortal dares-"

"I was right! It is you Biengo!" Glosck said.

The demon thing stopped. "... Glosck? The Fuck are you doing here? I thought you and your siblings were on that pony world with friendship and magic and ugh gag me."

"On some mission Mother sent me on to accompany the skinsuit I'm borrowing."

"You couldn't have gotten a better meat puppet?"

"Trust me, he might be ugly but he's got All Maker Shopkeeper's approval."

That somehow made Biengo pale. "Oh may all the other All Makers have mercy on your souls…"

“It can’t be that bad right?” I asked nervously. “I mean, sure Pain and that fluff potato of a wolf said ‘it is’ but…it can’t be right?”

"Yeah, well anyway I'm gonna need that Divine Reaper gun you got…" Glosck said.

"That thing wasn't cheap, like heck I'm… oh you're gonna kill and eat me aren't you?"

"It's nothing personal."

"I'd rather not be dead…"

"We'll put you back into your body after it's all done. Consider it a vacation."

Biengo sighed, groaning as they rubbed their eyes. "I guess I could use a vacation from all the fire… one one condition. I get control over the body too for… two or three hours once a week."

“My body’s not a hotel damn it.” I frowned.

"That's my terms." Biengo stated.

"Why do you even want control over the body for two or three hours a week?" Glosck asked, regaining control.

"So I can get wasted, screw around. My body makes it impossible for me to get drunk. Not even buzzed, and my body also has no genitals so… I need a host or surrogate body to get some."

"Ugh." Glosck huffed.

“Of course…” I grumbled.

"So, deal?" Biengo asked.

“As long as you don’t do anything stupid with my body, cause I doubt either Shopkeep or Pain would find that fun.” I brought up.

"Nah, just food, booze and sex." Biengo stated.

"Alright, let's get this over with."

"Wow, your Homeworld is kinda a dump." Biengo said as we all awoke. He was given his three hours for today and then once a week from now on…

"I know. It needs more fire." Glosck replied.

“It needs to be healed and not be an irradiated wasteland assholes.” I frowned.

"Well, make due." Biengo said, getting up in my body and walking over to a piece of reflective glass. It was dirty but he got a good look at my body…

Then it changed.

My mane grew back. Rot reversed, fur grew back… it… I forgot my eyes were a golden brown color…

"Much better."

“H-how? I…” I was at a loss for words at seeing myself unghouled…it’s been so long.

"Oh it's easy. Perks of being a Hell God. Anyways, where is the nearest settlement? Or place one can fuck for fun?"

"Think we passed some camp yesterday." Glosck said.

“Hold the fuck up, if I look normal, then…wouldn’t I have everything back to normal? I can barely handle Lucky! I can’t have more kids!” I started to mentally panic at the thought this prick was gonna start impregnating every capable mare and dump me with all the responsibilities.

"Oh relax, you're still sterile. All I did was reverse the cosmetic damage while I'm in control." Biengo stated. "Even if I did make that work for you again While I'm at the wheel, they would also be partly my kids and trust me you nor I want literal little devil's running around."

“Well…I suppose that’s good.” I nodded.

I still can't believe I agreed to this… well at least we got that gun.