Fallout: Equestria - Red, White and Blue

It was Hell in that penitentiary. I hated it. Everything was dark. Everything was cramped. How could I even start... adjusting. Whitestar's mom was holding me. I fell asleep crying on her. Shit. I wiped my eyes and gave that cough that magically erased what I did, the kind of cough I used when I didn't wanna admit I was involved, that I didn't care. Who had time for tears.

I stayed there in the arms of someone... capable, somepony that'd stay with me and take care of me. I wantes to call her 'mom.' Scratch that, I-I wanted to call her 'Mama.' I wanted to say she was mine and pretend like I wasn't just a third wheel acquaintance. But I was. I knew I was because she wasn't holding tightly.

Star Spangle always looked... aloof. I couldn't put it down but she looked cold. Just like Whitestar. I didn't like it. It didn't make me feel safe or paired, it felt like I was walking with a robot. I wished the elevator worked. But trying to ride it back up was useless. We needed to find a transformer or something to restart the electricity in general.

I trotted away, not glancing back because I knew she was there. I knew Star Spangled was still in Tequila's body, following my every move and keeping that one, neutral grimace over her face. She was just that silent. Just that similar to something I'd see out of a laboratory or The Commonwealth. We moved in an almost uniform fashion between empty, rusted walls and water-bit metal chainlinks. This area of the penitentiary was different.

It felt like I was on display. The only thing I had for comfort was the fact that Star Spangled had light spells. Her light spells worked in a cone of light, like a flashlight. It was better than a big ball of light, she said, as it made the caster vulnerable and visible.

The tight squeeze we managed inching forward was like being a circus act. I was on the tightrope and the endless darkness beneath me and, for some fucking reason, over the chainlink bridge section and even past the walls, were members of the crowd telling me to fall. The dark, so vast and empty, was tipping me over. Every step echoed into a deeper echo the more I stepped forward. And the more I stepped forward, the more I looked down. It was so far down.

I took another step forward. And then the bridge metal creaked against me. I wanted to step off but I couldn't. I didn't want to move. I was stuck and Star Spangle knew it, too. We stayed still... meeting eyes and too scared to shake.

"Carbon... Carbon, it's okay. I promise. We're gonna fall. And you need to relax... Lay flat against the floor when you do. Pray."

I choked a sob back as the grating came loose and the bridge collapsed in two. I closed my eyes and clutched the old metal before we fell. I felt the darkness moving in on me. And I made the mistake of opening my eyes. The way down was full of corpses on sharp, jagged stakes sticking right out the walls. I fainted when I realized Star Spangled wasn't with me anymore. She was falling on her own... off the bridge. I collapsed in one, abrupt motion... and the rest was darkness.

I woke up surrounded by a cage of metal. The bridge section thinned out and turned into a rolling cage for me. I had no idea what to do. My forelegs were crippled and my chest was throbbing in agony. Something wasoff. A giant mess of metal swallowed me whole and I was just an ant inside an empty colony. I found one of the torn chainlink sections and slipped away from there. I felt sticky. Icky. I was layered in geoss slime. It smelled like blood and shit, honestly. I mean, it was worse than hour-long sex.

I crawled out of there with my handpurse stuck against my back and a big, huge wound on my stomach tore against the floor. It was all concrete. I would've been dead without the bridge metal. There were two ways to go between these walls full of jerky corpses and skeletons. One way, to the right, was a normal hallway. And the other place, to the right, was a hole the size of a dragon's ass after mating season.

I didn't know where to go, honestly. Sure, the hole seemed like a horrible place to go, but I'd rather go into a hole and fight a radroach than a red spear monster. So I observed the two directions carefully. The hallway had... obvious bloodstains striping into it. And the hole had some sort of occult symbol. The rune itself I liked. It made me feel comfortable, like nothing could hurt me. All the blood did was make me woozy, weak and helpless.

So I got on my hooves and elbows and crawled over. I went inside and I felt the damp presence of cold, chilling liquid on me. But that didn't matter. It was better than feeling like jellied eels. Going through it was a great choice. It felt clean, looked clean and there were no monsters on the other side. I say monsters because I didn't exactly get my hopes up for equine contact. Surprisingly, I crawled out and found a fully-lit hallway on the other side.

It wasn't nasty or crawling with tetanus like the other side. Instead, I was treated to din flourescent lights along the ceiling. It felt like a train station. The layout resembled one, down to the railroad tracks themselves. I could've even said... it really was a train station, only, less like the ruined ones and more a makeshift subway system. The rails weren't made with great material. Whoever constructed them, the old lines were coated in red, corrosive rust.

I trotted about toward the nearest pillar, along the run-down catwalks made of scrap and old parts from somewhere else. It looked sturdy enough, to be honest. But I never did feel right looking at them. It felt like monsters would pop out of the walls. It felt like I was in danger if I went anywhere near the catwalks and stairways.

I felt like an ant in the underground area. It wasn't dark and cramped, but it was wide and open with lots of blind corners. I didn't know which was worse. I started glancing behind me. Something was wrong with that place. It was too light. Too safe. I trotted farther to find a bathroom. I made my way between rows of thick, square collumns.

Turning the corner, I found the restroom area. It was a dead end with an overfilled trash can and two restrooms. But in the corner of said dead end, to the right... I saw a zebra. Her movement was slow and dragging. Her first instinct was to turn around and widen her eyes in pure, unfettered astonishment. I turned my eyes and kicked my forehoof about. She talked first. There was nothing distinguishing about her besides that golden tail ring she wore.

"You... you're real? How did- is this a dream...? It has to be. Look I don't know who you are, but can you come with me? It's cold, dark and fucked down here. There are monsters walking around and- I-I need to find Radio Free."

I couldn't help but want to hear her. She had this voice... soothing angels to sleep. It was raspy to a fault and she lazed about letters like we were laying in bed. I couldn't help it, but she was hot. I snapped out of it when she tilted her head in puzzled patience, waiting for me.

"Of course I will. But you need a weapon, don't you? I got my horseshoes. Take my purse."

I saw her eyebrows furrow and crease in confusion.

"But... what's a purse gonna do? Is it full of bricks?" She gasped, nearly dropping it as I passed it on.

The answer was yes, obviously. I used three bricks. It was an old trick Mr. Money taught me. We gathered our nerves in tiny bundles of brittle feelings. She took the lead, because I wasn't going first. I had no idea where we were and nothing felt right. How long had she been down there... hopeless and down staring at the wall. I held my breath as we passed another section of square collumns. And in our hopes of finding Radio Free, we were treated to something else...

I saw something... twitching and wiggling by the escalators. It's body was hard to talk about. There were lots of thin, black stripes over it's skin and the legs were stubs. It could've been a zebra that fell into a meat grinder and magically got reassembled. But it looked worse than that. The bones were all wrong. It's ribs were jutting out and lots of squirming tongues were coming out it's stomach. The head was like... someone blew the jaw off and the lower jaw started moving like mandibles. It's eyes were gone. It didn't look like someone tore them out, though. It looked like it was born with holes for eyes.

I froze. Was it a person. A dog. The chest was too thin and long and the legs were short, but... why was the fail an arm with fingers?

My friend started shaking. Her breaths were shivers and shallow sobs. I held her hoof to calm her down and whispered 'look, it's eating... it's eating something. let's slip past it, okay?' I couldn't understand most of her response, but she took to trembling. I heard her whisper 'kill it... kill it, please just do it-' I nodded slowly, unsure of the tightness in my gut. Killing a pony was a necessity. Killing an animal, one that could clearly hear us and yet wasn't attacking. I didn't know what to say.

Sure it was a monster. Sure it looked like something from my nightmares. But it wasn't attacking us. I even tested that theory by departing from my friend and approaching it. The split-mouthed dog just glanced up at me and barked happily, waving his tail. He even tried to lick my coat as gross as that was. But he saw her. He saw her and he that was when he sprang over.

"No!" She screeched, galloping for her life.

They almost collided, running toward the same point. But the split-mouthed dog missed her by a few inches when she slipped away, swerving as she fled. I later learned that was how somepony confused a dog chasing after them; it gave their legs trouble so balancing took more effort than running forward. I grit my teeth and I nucked the dog with my hindlegs.

I heard his neck snap. He stayed seizing on the floor, bleeding out his muzzle. He didn't have any eyes but I saw him bleeding away from his sockets. I heard him whining. Scuttling around on his legs as he twitched in place. I held my hooves over my mouth and I tried... to tell myself it was okay. They tried to kill my friend. I didn't need to cry.

"H-hey... Hey i-it's okay. It's okay." She whispered, taking me in against her chest.

I didn't like being held. But I needed it. My body needed to hold something because I killed him. I killed my only friend all over again.

"I... I killed hi- I-I killed Max-! I killed him...!"

Images of... flashing sequence rained down on me. I saw father handling Max and barking away, ordering me yo shoot. And I did. I shot him right in the temple. I collapsed, falling into my griend. I couldn't feel my legs. I was light-headed. Swirling voices stung my temples apart. It hurt. It fucking hurt. I grit my teeth as tears slipped away from me. I tried to choke my cries back. I really did. But I saw mama pulling the trigger for me, holding the gun in place and telling me to shoot.

'Shoot, god damn it! The raiders will get us...!'

It was a suppressed. 22lr rifle... subsonic rounds. Four rounds in his temple. And three minutes of whimperinh. Sobbing against him and being hit because I... made too much noise. I stumbled to my feet and forced myself up the broken escalator. I tried to stop myself from thinking about how many times I've heard the words 'bitch' and 'shut up' and who said it. I did my best to trot away without limping or tripping over my own, lazy stride.

"Lady... lady what's wrong? What's wrong?"

"I just killed something...! That's what's wrong...!" I screamed at her, striking my chest in emphasis.

I covered my mouth again. And I tried to apologize. She shook her head and kept her eyes on the nearedt exit. It was behind her. I twiddled with my forehooves and she kept her head down. We talked without eye-contact. That was fine. I felt naked under prying eyes, under being stared at like I was under a spotlight. We mumbled our next words out. How couldn't we.

"Now what... should we do. I just burst out, even at you. My patience fell through."

"You were just dealing with growing mad and more, you were just getting stressed. When you yelled at me it made me feel unsure, but I'm spineless..."

We shared a hug. And we shared names. I stayed beside her, walking up the subway steps toward the final entrance and exit. Nearby, I found a handgun in the directive office, or closest guide office. I handed it to my friend and that's when she told me.

"Here- wait, I never got your name. I... I'm Carbon. Carbon Copy Carpenter."

"I'm glad you're here. You can call me Cake. Zebra Cake. But all my friends call me Cakie..."