Fallout: Equestria - Red, White and Blue

Whitestar. That's what everyone called me. Only my closest loved ones called me anything different. My name, if pondered ages ago. But no more would I ever question it. I woke in the arms of my mother, who'd hung me over her back hours before. We were alone in that place, in wretched prison walls and sickly tetanus. And though we stayed far, far away from the prison cells, they were always on either side. The center of an endless hallway, we tread on, subject to swarms of whispers from every direction.

Star Spangled was starting to wobble. I noticed moreso just by watching her, afraid of losing her, the only one I had left. Generous nicks and lacerations layered her coat with fat patches of sanguine liqueur. I could tell from the lax texture of her thoracic trapezius muscle that most of her musculature had torn. She turned back to face me, a curious furrow in her brow. She read me better than anyone, psychic-like, even.

"Don't think... I'm done supporting you. Don't think I'm done... being a good mother."

A harsh, elongated exhale forced her lips apart. She went wide-eyed and dropped us both, buckling in her forelegs. We were crawling about like children, followed by the whispered malice all around.

'Give up.'

'There's nowhere to run now.'

'Leave your friends.'

'You'll never make it.'

I clutched the metallic flooring over and over in long, stretching strokes of my forelegs. They were still functional. My hindlegs weren't responding, I noted. I was wondering why they never kicked awake. They were numb. Almost... non-existent. I settled my eyes just on Mother, dazed and sloppy from all my bloodloss. Outrageous fortune struck my heart. I nearly froze from how corrosive the pain was. It ate away at my chest with chatting, gnawing canines and vampiric siphon, never satisfied and never sated.

"And I...!" I managed to pant, barely able to breathe.

"Better be a damn good daughter to you...!"

I struck my sternum to override the pain, did the same to my flanks and finally managed to stand. I took her over my shoulders and galloped drunkenly forward. Constant trips and swerves crashed us about but all it did was make me stronger. I grit my teeth and told myself the truth.

Did I know why I was never happy.

I heard her breath come to a halt. And behind me, I saw in the reglection of an old, undelivered mirror, was an abomination. The terror itself was various foals stitched together, along with stuffed animals and books brimming and sprawling with fleshy pages. The pages flew about in wild, accordion-folded limbs tipped with endless bone shards jutting at every corner. Star Spangled had shut her mouth by pressing her hooves against her lips. I knew the sound of it: tiny whines crammed backwards against the throat.

I was never happy because I was born to suffer.

I felt my irises widen as I saw light at the end of that tunnel. At the end, the alluring illumination, I aimed my heart. We stormed forward with all we had. I did all the galloping, but Mother gave me hope. She cheered me on in clinging to me, in showing me my purpose.

I suffered because that was what it took to do good.

I sacrificed for the good of the many.

Not the few. Or the one.

We reached the one meter mark. I did my best to harnest all my momentum and toss Mother inside first. The light poured in from a verical, folding door made of many metallic parts. It worked like a garage door, only, it rusted immobile from time and wear. Mother tumbled in and clutched her chest from sudden shock. I felt my eyes hang heavy as I realized I might not make it. I might've become second-billing to my own destiny. I might've been a martyr instead of the leader Celestia raised me to be.

From the sound of the rolling and crashing of the infinite nightmare creature, it was far too close. We were almost in the same meter of space. Only darkness separated us, kept us from facing each other down.

"Whitestar...! Whitestar...! Please, don't fight! Run! Slip through to the other side!"

"Whitestar-! Oh Celestia, Whitestar don't leave me...! I can't lose you again!"

I tried not to cry. I did. But before I knew it, I was sobbing too. I was sniffing too, just silently. I could barely breathe, much less wail. I lit a smoke to calm my nerves, awaiting the crawling chaos careening toward me, violent and invisible.

"It's no use, hn... my hindlegs won't bend down any further. If they do, I won't be able to stand and they'll give out for good. Be good. If I don't make it, I love you. I promise."

My only option was to rely on my abilities. My abilities and myself... not my legs, not my muscles, but my force of will. I spotted it turn the corner. And I stared it down every step of the way. It jabbered away in cacophonous filly and colt voices. It told me I should offer myself. That I was better off it's mate slave than opposing it. I took a moment or so to regain my breath and stamp my hoof against the ground.

"Celestia... if you can hear me, keep my mother safe. Keep Carbon Safe. Keep everyone safe. And if I must suffer... then take me to Hell!"

I burned with flame and, for the first time ever, the pyre was white... a supernova shade of sunlight I hadn't imagined, no, comprehended real. The black book itself established itself around me, coming apart in pages of wild, flocking noise and flapping motion. The pages unravelled and wrapped about me in constricting layers of thin, fleshy armor. The gilded cross took to my chest. And I heard a voice above the commotion say:

"Carry on, burning star: your light is your way."

It couldn't have been anyone else. It was Her, Celestia herself. It had to be.

I beheld the beast and the darkness give way. The path was clear and the prison came undone when I, bathed in flame, charged the wicked mass and engulfed it's pages in flame. The many necromantic pages of the amalgamation blinded me with radiant agony. I felt my cheeks sopping with tears. And I knew deep down why my name was Whitestar.

I took hold of the spherical shape of the beast, dirty with orphan blood.

A mare wasn't chosen for how special she was. She was chosen for all the right choices she'd made herself. Celestia did not choose me for my purity. For my muscles. I was chosen for my willpower, my conviction.

In a sky of black, a star so dim as me stood out among the rest. No matter how dark the road grew, I would always find my way. I would always guide the blind. I would always do my best to heal. So I healed the monster by tearing it clean in two, headbutting the core spirit item and smashing it to pieces. No more was the vile hell all those foals had suffered. No more were they trapped. I laid them to rest by shattering the crystal ball that held their teeth and blood and hair.

All around me, the mess expanded. Rotting flesh and putrid, innocent blood burned my coat and eyes and lungs. I dropped down and slammed into the gore muzzle-first. As soon as battle came to a close, I felt the armor slide away, barely unscsthed as some pages were eviscerated from the battle damage I hadn't even noticed. Along my chest were various, breaching gashes that would've ended me if it weren't for Celestia's answer to my prayer.

I stumbled backwards and scurried away to check on my mother, banging into the door from sheer exhaustion.

"Mother- Celestia damn it are- are you still there...?" I huffed, barely conscious as it were, leaning deeply against the door.

"Wh-whitestar? I-I found the switch to the door. I'm going to raise it- so stand back."

I did my best to balance. Soon enough, she kept her word and the door slid up and into place. Only when I limped inside did Star Spangle close and lock the folding door mechanism. That's when we embraced each oyher. And kissed each other.

Hey. I fucking earned it. Spare me the topic of incest being wrong.

"Twilight's light, I- I... thought I lost you." I cursed, trembling against her, needing her, dying without her.

I let my eyes hang heavy. And I let my tears stream down, finally safe. Finally safe enough to show my feelings. I ached deep within, bitter from what she had to experience. I knew Celestia had saved me entirely from fate worse than death, but how and why, for sure, I still didn't know.

"I love you too, Whitestar... if that ever happens again, do me a favor and let me do the fighting... I've lived a good life. Let mother handle the monsters. I can't lose you, too. Not like your father."

We shared our tears and pin-cushion hearts. We shared a moment in time where everything was right, just the two of us in serene harmony. I promised her to be careful. But only if she let me carry her the rest of the way. I grinned widely at her frustration, but we both agreed: she was in no condition to walk. I stumbled forward in metallic clicks and clangs, leaving one pair of hoofprints in the... cement?

The walls weren't grated metal anymore. They were greyed stone similar to the stone composite of a sidewalk. She was so particularly dazed and blurry that it'd only occured when she reached a normal, non-metallic corridor. Instead, it was full of cheap floral paint and lackluster flourescent lights. The light fixtures themselves barely flickered in the wrong rhythm. She stumbled onward, half-paranoid and shifting her gaze about in self-imposed emergency.

"Whitestar... Do you hear that?" Hushed Star Spangle, immediately snapping her out of it.

A faint melody skirted along the walls. A sweet echo embraced her ears and kept the nightmares at bay. Quite literally, the corridor, distended and wide as it was, had no monsters whatsoever. She couldn't help but recall the equestrian fairy tells Father Pepperjack used to tell. The voice itself had a low, groggy feel to it. The very gravitas of it made her chest rumble with proximity. She recognized that voice anywhere.

We found a single, wooden door at the end of the hallway. I pressed the pressure plate mechanism and opened it halfway open. I could see another pressure plate on the other side. Like most equestrian doors, it opened both ways and relied on a dual-lock system that relied on two locks and latches. I stayed silent clicking it open and peeking in.

"Hay and welcome to Point Lookin Radio, children. This song is dedicated to all the foals out there missing someone important. And I mean important. He's watching over you, kiddies. Trust me. And he's ready to smile because he's so proud you're still here. This is 'Daddy's Girl'."

I felt water creeping against my eyelids. And I didn't know why, but it leaked forward and spilled over my cheeks. I stepped forward to see somepony's silhouette highlighted by various computer screens and glowing radio technology. From something containing a record player, to some sort of recording studio to their left, the room was vast, comparable to an atrium.

Only closer could I see what or who the pony was. And, ironically, it was a... young, girly mare with canary yellow fur. Over her face was a doe skull spray-painted tie-dye. At first, I had no idea what to think. Her body was unmistakably effeminate, down to the hips and muzzle geometries. I heard her yelp at first, then draw a peculiar, foreign pistol: a revolver. Her revolver was silver with an ivory handle. The scope was missing, however and the barrel was the lengthier than I'd ever seen.

I took a double-take when I realized she was mid-bubble bath when I'd found her. Literally, her entire, enticing figure was soaped with children's bubblesoap. It made her slick and damp, especially about her pubic region, which she immediately covered with a giant loofah.

And when she spoke, her voice was... normal again.

"Wh-who are you?! How did you make it past the traps...?" Asked Radio Free, boring into me with her round, emerald eyes.

She wore a particular scowl that grit her teeth just the right way. The best way I can describe it is a compact, upside-down grin, akin to a cute, fluffy animal's. I couldn't help but grin back at her, amused, charmed and relieved to find another face within La Obscura.

"My name," I stated, finally free to smoke.

'Is Whitestar. And I need your help, miss."