Fallout Equestria
Times of Talons: Chapter 4
Past

We’ve all had them, mistakes they instantly regret. As Blood Heart used her magic to open the door ahead I flew holding her, once in we bared it with whatever we could. The pounding of hooves against the door shook us to our spine. The empty building echoed sounds throughout, sending waves of fear as we struggled to find a way out. The terrifying sound of further, distant hoofsteps sounding through the long empty halls only encouraged us to move quicker.

I had to admit, I hadn’t been one for good ideas. We’d left the Crystal Pass and now head south, around the Canterlot ruins and Ponyville. We’d walked for what felt like years but had only been two days until something in the distance had caught my attention. We’d only recently passed the ruins and Ponyville was only a little ways southeast of us. I knew the raiders of Ponyville may have infested some of these buildings but the allure or a Super-Duper Pony Mart took full attention. Despite having stocked up leaving Woodworks and now Radioactive Falls, we only had so much food and water, and Blood Heart had said these places often had first aid supplies. I hadn’t seen any raider decorations like those Woodworks used, so it seemed like a good bet, especially since the doors had been chained from the outside. This had a few red flags about it, as I expected in the time those raiders been there they’d have cleared a place like this out. There had to have been a reason this place was vacant. We knew it was dangerous but the supplies inside were too much to leave. As we entered, I found out why it’d been left alone.

“Ghouls!” was all Blood Heart shouted as they attacked. The monstrous looking abominations looked like ponies, but long dead. The flesh burned and ripped apart, their body skinny but still agile and capable of charging us down, and dodging several shots from Tweety Bird. The monsters had deep, soulless eyes, pale and white. The hideous, rotten teeth snarled and growled at us. We tried running but our shots awoke some in the parking lot and now the only way was to push through them, into the store.

We’d pushed through, the food still on the shelves was calling my attention, but the savage monsters chasing us still took full priority. As we passed down the halls, we tried toppling behind the counters, in hopes to hold the ghouls back. Drawing our weapons the call of Tweety Bird echoed through the store, while Blood Heart’s pistol provided better fire rate then the magnum. As we fought them back the click from Tweety Bird alerted me to an empty gun, turning to grab another handful of .357 I saw something. The old windows, blasted out centuries ago, where direct openings for further ghouls to enter. When I looked over three crawled through, with several others waiting behind them. Yelling out to Blood Heart she finally noticed when looking over to me, most likely confused as to not seeing me shooting this long. The two of us dove over the counter to our left, racing past the ghouls we needed another way out, while Blood Heart looked around, I held them back, but with more pouring through the walls time wasn’t with us. The bathrooms would likely be a trap, so the loading docks down the basement maybe our only choice left. Taking Fatal Blow of my side, the strong stalk smashed the lock off the door and we pulled in.

We’d passed a lot, offices and storerooms along the hallways. The filing cabinets and tables knocked around and rusted. The ghouls stampeded behind us, until we reached a back room. Blood Heart opened the door, with me flying us both in. barding the door we took up positions. The hallway turned to our left was the way we needed to go, as this empty room had no other ways out. The sounds around us echoed through the room, but something stood out. The sound of a sliding door behind us caused total attention. A section of what had thought to be metal slid into the ceiling with another ghoul standing behind it. I brought my gun to bear, but Blood Heart pushed the barrel down. Looking back to the ghoul, it stood out over any others. The eyes looking back to us where that of normal ponies, not that of a feral monster, his body retained the dried, wrinkles and open wounds. Then he opened his mouth, I fully expected him to roar out at us like others but he called to us.

“Come with me, now.” His voice dry and scratchy, like sandpaper across your ears, it seemed to hurt him speaking by the sound alone. Looking to him, Blood Heart had a look of confusion.

“Who are you?”

“No time now, you’ll have to trust me.” We looked to each other and realized we didn’t have many other options. We ran to the friendly ghoul and he shut the metal slab again. The room beyond was dark, cold and damp. The stairwell down lead to a small room, with several containers throughout the spaces and a mattress in a corner, Medic boxes, food containers and ammo boxes stacked atop one another. The walls showed old rust and chipped paint, water dripped from the ceiling and trickled into puddles across the floor. The, ah, ghoul, walked over to the mattress and pulled some bottled water out. Handing it over, Blood Heart and I just stood in disbelief.

“Who, what are you.” Blood Heart spoke up, her magic bringing her gun to bear; the ghoul simply stepped back and sat on his bed. Looking at him, he hadn’t shown a slight bit of fear towards us, even with a pistol pointed to his head right now.

“If I’d have wanted you dead, I’d just needed to leave this bunker closed off. I heard you in trouble up there and decided to help you. You really have no need to fear me. I’m Baby Blue, you could just call me BB, all my friends did.”

“Who are your friends?” I’d asked, wanting to know more about this buck.

“Ponies of old, ones from before the war; all long dead, I’ve been here since. Used to make my rounds here, didn’t have much to do as my friends where still on duty.” Looking to him, a new question arose.

“You were a soldier before?”

“Yha, me in a different life, served about halfway into the war, taking place in the Equestrian Guard. Me and my four other friends decided to join up. I’d taken a bullet to the right shoulder, got taken out of service. Got pretty lonely without them, but it was nice to be back to Ponyville. Walking through this store calmed me, put my mind at ease with all I’d experienced out in battle.”

“How’d you end up down here?” Blood Heart asked, now the look of interest crossed her features.

“It’s a long story, not a particular one you’d be interested in.” I looked at him, the battered old mind had been through so much, I was interested, and it was genuinely the first time I’d been.

“We wouldn’t ask if we didn’t care.” I’d stated, with Blood Heart nodding in agreement.

“See, back after I’d been relieved I’d been coming here. One particular day I’d entered the unfaithful day the world ended.” He had our complete and full attention. “I saw them, blinding lights hitting a pink shield over Canterlot, the radio signal starting to go static. I cannot remember how many I’d seen, but then the air sirens started and other megaspells began raining around. I, I saw their explosions in directions by cities, Fillydelphia, Baltimare, Manehatten all were wiped off the map. The store manager started moving us down to this open hatch, the one we’re in now. As we piled in, a noise unlike any I’d heard called out, by the time I’d look to the direction, a wave of heat hit us. I passed out, maybe a day. Waking up I stood in the burned out shell of this place, everypony I’d been with lay dead at my hooves. I spent days, weeks maybe hiding down here, just trying to cope with it. Any tears I had about them I’d shed then. I began to realize I’d become what’s now called a ghoul, I’ve lost all need to eat and drink, and radiation doesn’t hurt me anymore.”

Looking to him, I’d heard it, how it all went down and what’d happened, I couldn’t believe it. Sure, I’d only gotten it from one source, but an eyewitness isn’t something many could say now. I had to go through losing a friend; I couldn’t imagine dealing with the loss of everything around you and the very world itself. Looking to him, I only had one question left.

“What was it like, before the war, the world?” he looked to me, his eyes lit up with a smile across his face.

“Oh it was beautiful, we seemed to take it for granted them, and only now do I wish for what we’d lost. Trees with lush, green leaves and the feeling of grass among your hooves and body.” He actually stopped to whip a tear away. “I, miss that feeling; quite frankly, forgot the feeling all together.”

“What are you doing out here, still in this bunker?” Blood Heart had asked, she’d not only put the gun away some time ago, but also sat fully down on an old mat.

“I used to leave, scavenge for things or seek others who may’ve survived. Then folk moved into Ponyville, those raiders you came here to avoid. I hadn’t known who they’re and as I decided to find out almost had a bullet placed into my skull. Decided I could just stay here.”

“How’d you know we wanted to avoid the raiders?” The ghoul looked to Blood Heart, slightly amused.

"Well, most if not all travelers know the raiders held up in Ponyville, avoid it like the plague. I figure, you two saw them, looked to avoid em, saw this place and weighed the options. Am I right? I’ve heard it, the screams of travelers attacked by the ghouls. It’s always before I can get to them.”

I looked back and forth from our ghoul host and Blood Heart. He’s been a lifesaver, and a genuine source of knowledge from the past. I knew from stories the ponies and zebras did something with megaspells to destroy everything, but I just never really comprehended how many it affected. My place in this world kept me from thinking about it, and up until a few days ago, was still something I hadn’t thought of much. There was now one question left.

“How are we going to get out of here?” Blood Heart looked to me, then back to Baby Blue and nodded. He seemed to smile at that. This wasn’t going to be good.

My every thought became a reality as the door to the bunker slid open and the ghoul hoard looked to us. Baby Blue had said the ghouls are drawn to radiation, and so long as we gave off enough radiation we’d blend in. I was feeling sick, my insides turned and every motion made me want to throw up. Baby Blue had us bathe in irradiated water and placed irradiated blood packs on our backs. He warned the two of us it would begin effecting us in a negative way, so time was of the urgency. We made it back to the ground floor, much of the ghouls were down the lower levels now. Blood Heart seemed the worse of the two of us. She seemed unable to handle the radiation as much as I could. She barely made it up the stairs, and now wobbled at best and almost toppled over at worst. If things weren’t bad enough, it seemed the ghouls were becoming suspicious a towards Blood Hearts movements. As we reached the exit, I heard it, Blood Heart had finaly collapsed under the radiation poisoning. The ghouls started gathering around her, their monstrous screams and groans picking up. I didn’t think, I just did. Tweety Bird exited its holster, and blasted the heads off three ghouls. Baby Blue jumped in, punching and kicking the others away. He slid Blood Heart to me, and continued to fight them off. The last thing I heard from him was a cry to leave. Nocking the irradiated blood packs off I grabbed my unicorn companion and flew as quickly as I could. Reality hit me as my own radiation poisoning sent my crashing back to earth. I landed on my back, Blood Heart’s unconscious body laid atop me. Baby Blue had given us something to help after we left, RadAway. I opened my bags to try to find some, when the feeling of something cold against the back of my head stopped me. Quickly realizing I had a gun to me, I saw two other raiders climb out from Ponyville’s direction.

“Give us the bags,” the one behind me said. It was a mare’s voice, and by how clear she spoke, she was a unicorn. The other two stallions stood watching, one wore spiked hoof shoes and the other wielded a 10mm pistol in mouth. Due to the fog that had rolled in, I couldn’t really see their color or what they wore other than the spiked shoes guy had a helmet on. I couldn’t think straight, either the stress of the situation or the radiation poison but I could hardly see straight. The sound of plastic bending and cracking snapped me back to reality and caught the raiders off guard. Baby Blue had kicked spiked shoe guy in the face, bending his helmet and likely breaking his jaw. The other two raiders didn’t waste time, and filled him with holes. I realized what he did, he gave us time, and I would use it. Tweety Bird was still out of his holster, and I wiped it around and planted a .357 magnum round into the raider mare’s skull. By the time the buck turned to face me, the striking barrel between his eyes was all he saw, then the bang of the round echoed through the quiet fog.

Racing over, Baby Blue lay motionless, his chest no longer lifted. I had someone else who needed me, racing back to Blood Heart who still lay motionless. Sifting through the bags I about cried as I struggled to keep my hands steady, finally the RadAway revealed itself and was quickly given to Blood Heart. I stood there, waiting. I had something happen to me that hadn’t in a long while, a moment to stop and reflect on what happened. What had become of me? I left my home with little knowledge of the world beyond the cliff, and have now seen others die around me, and taken part in the killing of others. I still think of the mutilated bodies I saw throughout the raider’s campsite and how close I came to joining them. I found someone I feel like calling a friend when we’ve only known one another a short time and I’d nearly lost her. I didn’t think I could handle the loss of someone close again, and especially like this, cause radiation sucks. I couldn’t continue these thoughts, I knew if I did I could lose control, and it wasn’t something I rather wanted to remember. I couldn’t help it though, I sat in the dark, recollecting on past actions and events. If I had it my way, I’d curl up in the nearest dark corner and die. I knew I couldn’t, my conscious would never let me. Something caught my attention, leaving me to pause my internal argument. Blood Heart began moving, she opened her eyes and smiled.

“Thank You,” she said in a soft, worrying tone. I needed help, I needed Buckellhorn or someone, Blood Heart’s eyes closed, and her head fell back. I began to panic, but before I could do anything I heard commotion from the nearby town of Ponyville, I needed to get us out before others arrived.

“No, no, take it slow.” Blood Heart looked to me, slight confusion across her features. “How’s this for irony.”

“Where, where’re we?”

“We got away, and I managed to bring you back. We’ve been here a few hours at most.” She looked around, the old, crumbled walls of a pre-war home stood around her. I’d managed to carry her to the closest home, one outside an old farm and a good distance away from Ponyville. The home had a terminal but I wasn’t an experienced hacker, more than likely nothing on it, though.

“I managed to lower your radiation level, but I’m no doctor, you’ll have to be the judge on how I did.” She sat up slowly, looking around still.

“What ever happened to Baby Blue?” the name still hit me, lowering my head she caught on.

“He gave himself to save us”

She sat up, the effects of radiation poisoning still effecting us as even I was still slightly sick. I looked at the map given to us, finding our position we needed to cross somewhere once called the Ghastly Gorge, after it a home stretch to Baltimare. I didn’t know how long the track would be, but it needed to be done. Fallowing our sickness neither of us was in anyway hungry. Taking the long night to rest for the upcoming walk and the impending disasters it would bring,

The path we needed to pass was a valley, taking us around raider territory and meeting up with a railroad track that’ll take us down to a town called Farwood Bog. Looking on the map the town has a dock, so I’m hoping for a boat down the river, maybe just to make our life easier. The trips far, but it’s all I have to go off. Thinking to it, the raiders may’ve gone to this place called Salt Lick City, its south of Baltimare and along the seaside as well. We’ll have to find information when we get down there, but I do not like how many different places these raiders could be hiding. I didn’t care if I’d spend my life tracking them to the ends of the earth, I’d kill them all.

Loud bangs and thunderous explosions echoed throughout the skies. Another damn storm, we only just had one. The building had a roof, but two hundred years weren’t kind to it. Water leaked through the wooden beams and tapped against the floor below. Blood Hearts illness caused her to sleep like a rock, but I found it troublesome. I’ve taken precautions by leaving our empty food cans by the door. The windows already barred over with wood, suggesting someone else was here. The place was vacant of any basic living supplies like food or medicine so I’d doubt we’d have to worry about anyone coming home. Lightning struck, lighting the sky and surrounding lands. I noticed something, something I hadn’t before. Off, back north more, a city rose on the side of a mountain. Looking again, the flash of another lightning strike gave me the view I needed. A massive landmark, one build high above the ground and away from any of the threats, stood the tall and imposing city. The thing catching my attention the most wasn’t that it seemed intact or undamaged, but the sickly pink fog around it. The city overlooked the whole land, and that pink cloud hovered there like a virus. The map told it to be Canterlot, the old capitol of Equestria and the home of some ministry buildings. I didn’t know about any of this, but thinking on it, I didn’t want to go there. If the cities that pristine looking, there’s a reason no one’s gone there and I’d bet that cloud has something to do with it. I also didn’t need the distraction for I had business elsewhere.

Thunder continued long into the night, leaving sleep a distant hope. I instead spent the time to clean and maintain my weapons. I hadn’t the chance to test Fatal Blow yet and have kinda been itching to. Looking at the size round I knew it would pack a punch over anything else we had, but the rifle itself was huge. Looking to it, it was longer than I am standing on all fours. She was a heavy weapon indeed and a pain for my back to lug around. The weapon comes from griffon origins, so curiosity leaves me to wonder if my hometown has any in stock. I only ever saw basic rifles and nothing this size on any guards. The caliber, 13.9, the biggest we had. The internal magazine only fit three of the massive shells, combined with its over cumbersome size left it a poor choice facing anything in close spaces. As I cleaned her, I had thought I heard something, a faint sound from outside. I was a griffon, making me part cat and bird of prey, and leaving me amazing eyesight. Even without a scope, I could hit anything out there with the guns iron sights.

The tree skeletons around us wouldn’t provide much cover to anything planning to attack. The dead bushes moved about, not of the wind but from something else. The lightning lighting the place gave me the answer to what stalked us in the night, rabid wolves. A fight was brewing. My view slightly hindered by the rain, but little movements still caught attention. I hadn’t encountered rabid wolf packs yet, though hunting parties from the past talked of them occasionally ambushing others. What worried me most, I couldn’t tell how many there where. The pitter-patter or paws on wet dirt continued through for seemingly hours, finally, one-stepped into light. The wolf lost much of its fur, with faint patches around its body; old scars and cuts riddled its hid as well. The beast’s maw was a trap of jagged and broken teeth, its long canines still predominant in its stare. Fatal Blow lifted as the once beautiful canine, now a shadow of its former self stepped into optimal firing range. I hadn’t fired a weapon of this caliber before, and never felt its kick. The trigger pulled back, the faint sound of a click gave way to a concussive blast I’d never heard before. The shot rang through the building, and out into the distant land, echoing the call of the rifle for miles. My ears didn’t expect this, and neither was I, I fell backwards, smacking against the old floor. Blood Heart ran to me, franticly screaming and questioning, my hearing haltered; I could only hear a faint ringing. Eventually it passed and turned to face her.

“She’s got one hell of a voice, I tell you that.” Blood Heart just looked to me unamused.

“It scarred the shit out of me, what’s out there?” when she looked to the window, I saw a bit of shock. I got up to see what I imagined the dead body of the rabid wolf laying nearby, what I saw even shocked me. The body was there, but much of its upper half wasn’t. The shot had hit above its right shoulder, cutting through and into the dirt, leaving the dismembered corpse lying in a heap of blood and bone. The shot scarred the others off, as I hadn’t heard or seen them since I took the shot.

“A pack stalked us, I wanted to try out the new weapon, had I known.” She just looked to me, a slight smirk across her features.

“For names sake, it’s got a pretty good one.” I turned and lifted Fatal Blow off the floor, and opened the bolt. The empty shell ejected out, pinging against the floor and rolling to a stop. The closing of the bolt slid a new round home. Looking at the weapon I thought, I know somepony who could use with one of these rounds between the eyes. Quickly taking a round for the beast of a rifle out I used my knife and carved “Payback Bitch” in the shell. He’ll get what’s coming.

Notice: Level Up

New Perk: Gun Nut
Small guns now have increased damage and longer lasting durability, accuracy has also been increased.
Quest Perk: Ghoul for brains
Now resist 5% total damage from ghouls and have unique dialogue options with non-feral ghouls

Author's Note

A bit of a shorter chapter than previous ones. Enjoy