Fallout Equestria The Onyx Note

I looked down at my pipbuck, holding back bile that wanted to escape my stomach as I saw the radiation meter. Apparently while I had been tussling with the radigator my radiation exposure had gotten to the point I had radiation sickness. I would say it was pretty accurate considering the twisting and wrenching feeling going on in my gut, almost as if it was trying to tear itself out of my belly. I looked back at the pool behind me, colored a bloody crimson complete with radigator brains floating on the surface. Eww, throwing up now.

I shivered, and wiped the remaining bile from my lips as I heard hoofsteps sounding from behind me. I spun, my world spinning with me but unlike me not stopping, making me almost throw up my lunch in the other universe as well. As my eyes refocused I saw a worried looking pony standing infront of me, followed by a bouncing green filly. “What happened to you? And why in the name of celestia are you covered in crimson?” she questioned, eyes wide and concerned. I opened my mouth to speak, but instead I covered it with a hoof as my bile tried to storm its way up my throat and out my mouth. My stomach really did not like radioactive water.

I swayed on my hoofs a bit before planting them into the ground and shaking my head, trying to get ahold of my senses. “We need to get the slaves down from the top level,” I said weakly, and on hooves that felt like jelly began to work my way back towards the stairs leading to the third floor. Lotus bounced up next to me, and pressed her small body against mine, offering support. I took it, and together the three of us walked back up the third floor.

Every step took all my strength, and I was gasping when we got to the top of the stairs. My entire being felt weak with exhaustion and sickness, but I had to keep going, for the slaves. If I couldn’t do that much what kind of pony was I? I took my weight of Lotus, and almost fell as my full weight settled back onto my hoofs. Slowly I hobbled into the room with the slaves, my eyes scanning the room when I walked in.

There they were, right over to the left in the same huddled heap as before, but now there expressions weren’t those of fear. Much to my discomfort, many of them were expressions of awe mixed with hope and happiness. I gave a weak smile, and nodded my head towards the entrance I was standing in. “Come on, let's get all of you home,” I said, and slowly the lump of ponies separated and began to walk around the break in the floor towards me. As my legs fought to keep me upright, Onyx gave an approving nodd in my head. “Good job, now we just have to work on standing,” she teased, and I sighed out loud, watching as the ponies gathered infront of me. “Alright everypony, let's get moving,”

Two hours of torturous walking later, I laid down in the sheriff's bed, groaning softly. My body felt like it weighed one hundred pounds, and I was glad to finally let my hoofs take a rest. My forehead felt slick with sweat, and my breath came out loud and wet. From now on I was going to make sure not to throw any trash into the water back home. As I heard the door open to the sheriff’s home I sat up and looked towards the doorway to my room to see Rosey walk in. “Oh hey, how do I look?” I joked weakly, and she gave a small smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

She sat down next to me and looked down at me, emotions swimming across her eyes like fish in a lake, but the most obvious one I could see was worry. “Dangit Onyx, taking a bath with a radigator is never a good idea,” she teased softly, and I winced a bit.

“Yah not one of my best ideas, but atleast we got all the slaves back here,”

“You could have gotten yourself killed,”

“If I hadn’t taken the chance all those slaves would have been killed,” I countered, and she sighed deeply, looking at me with sympathy. “Hey cheer up, sadness doesn’t look good on you,” I said weakly, and yawned softly. The days events were starting to take their toll. My mind felt like it was filled with murky water, and I couldn’t think straight. “By the way, how did you and lotus get all those other ponies?”

“W-we delt with them,” she stuttered, almost so quietly that I had to strain my ears to her. “When I was a steel ranger, they told me I would have to kill ponies for the good of the rest of the steel rangers, and I had said okay, not knowing what that actually really meant - “

“You say that as if you aren’t one anymore,”I cut in, and she gave me a sad smile before continueing, “but today was the first time I actually had to kill one, and it felt almost… satisfying, as if each slaver that went down was a step to something bigger,” she trailed off, but now I could see the earlier smile shimmering in her eyes, and that made me smile in turn. In my head I silently hoped that by the end of this that bigger thing she felt would actually become a reality. I also silently hoped that the itching on the sides of my neck would go away soon.

As she got out of earshot I let out a groan, and flopped back down onto the dirty matress. The itching on the sides of my neck was becoming a ripping pain, as if my skin was reforming on my body. Reaching up I grazed the area with a hoof, and froze. Pressing down, I felt a warm, sticky liquid coming out of my neck as well as three gashes. A touch to the other side showed it had the same three gashes and blood to go along. I moaned in pain, and rolled onto my back and clenched my eyes shut, trying to will the pain away. Instead of it going away, everything was swamped by an inky blackness as sleep finally overtook me.

When I woke up, I was a bit surprised to see Lotus sleeping next to me, her eyes closed and her hooves curled up close to her body. Her stomach and hoofs was pressed against my right side, and I watched the steady rise and fall of her chest as she slept soundly. I watched her for a bit more, then layed my own head back down and closed my eyes, instantly feeling the press of darkness on my senses. At least it was until the filly that was sleeping next to me woke up and rolled ontop of me, yawning and stretching.

“Off please,” I squeaked from under her, and she rolled back off of me giggling. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” she said apologetically.

“Its fine I was already up,”

“Are you feeling better? The sheriff came in a while ago and gave you all that radaway to help?” she questioned, and I blinked. Now that I thought about it I did, I felt a lot better. Infact the only thing that felt weird was the gaps still in my neck. “Yah I do, a lot better actually,” I confessed, and the little Lotus smiled a smile that could blind a pony. “Although one question, is there something on my neck?”

“Yup!” she responded, and I raised an eyebrow. At that her smile weakened a bit and she shrugged, saying, “Sorry, I don’t know what they are,”

“Oh alright,”I sighed, and slowly rolled onto my stomach. I stepped off the bed, relieved to find my legs didn’t feel like they would snap under me like twigs, and slowly walked out of the room. On the other side of the doorway I found Rosey and the sheriff talking quietly, and they both went silent as I walked into the room, turning their gazes to me. “Hey Onyx, you feeling better?” Rosey asked, and I nodded. The sheriff got up slowly, then walked over to me, his hat and the small rusted gold star on it bouncing as he walked. As soon as we had reached the small town he had insisted on wearing his hat, saying it made him feel stronger.

He stopped in front of me, before giving me a slow look up and down my body. I stared back at him, confusion bubbling in my head. Then to my surprise he held a hoof out to me, and I took it, shaking. “Good to see yall up and moving around,” he greeted me, and I smiled a bit. “Its also good to see you aren’ lyin’, we get too many ponies fallin’ dead because they’re too proud to admit their not feelin good,” his voice was tinged with a western accent, almost like some of the cowponies at appleloosa I had met when I was a filly. “The town thanks ya for helpin them out, and you have my personal thanks as well,”

“It was nothing, I just couldn’t let ponies die at the hands of slavers,” I protested, and a small smile touched his lips. Looking over to Rosey, I asked, “Hey Rose, how long have I been out?”

“Around four hours,” she informed me, and I grimaced. “Alright second question, what the Celestia is on my neck?”

“Uhm… we aren’t sure, but it looks almost like fish gills,” she responded, and my world seemed to rock a bit. Fish gills? I had fish gills on my neck? Great, now I was part fish pony. I groaned, and slumped to the ground. “Hey its not that bad, it actually looks kind of good and also cool,” Rosey said, and a voice from the bedroom belonging too Lotus spouted out, “It’s really cool!”

Despite my current condition a smile touched my lips, and I quickly asked for a mirror to see myself. After a couple seconds we found a couple shards of mirror, and put enough of them together to be able to get a headshot. I looked at myself in the mirror, stunned at the me that stared. I had the same green mane and black coat, but now the pupils of my eyes were like that of a reptiles. The same exact eye that the radigator looked at me with. I took that thought and shoved it down a garbage disposal shoot, turned it on, and then poured cement over it to make sure that it stayed down.

My the green in my eyes seemed to be an almost toxic green now, and along my neck was three green marks on each side, looking a bit like claw marks. Below the “gills” a few streaks of dried blood ran from them, and I remembered before I had fallen asleep feeling the blood coming out. Well that explained the itching from earlier. I took a shaky breath, and Rosey lowered the shards to the metal desk before looking back to me. “I-i’m okay, just a bit startled,” I breathed out, and I closed my eyes for a second, getting a hold of the emotions running around in my head like a hurricane.

When I finally got a hold of myself, I looked over to the sheriff, asking, “Sir, do you know where we are?”

“You mean you don’t know? Wer’ over in the north part of equestria, in the “great” city whinnysberg, one of the biggest trading points during the great war that sent us all into this wasteland,” he told me, his eyes rolling at the word “great”. As Lotus walked into the room, he looked at the three of us before informing us, “If you are all looking for a possible good place to learn more I suggest the gallops walk, its a couple miles to the south and is full of prewar history about this place,”

“Thank you,”I said, before following up by asking, “ by the way, where were those slavers going to take you?”

“Not entirely sure, they were sayin something about bringing us to the boss, whoever the buck that is,” he grumbled, and again I thanked him. The boss? Well jeeze that wasn’t hiding anything at all. I would have atleast hoped for a better nickname. Maybe something like big daddy, or maybe Charlie Chopper.

Me and Rosey headed out of the sheriff’s house after a bit of trivial chatting, and I was surprised to see the same green filly who had joined us for the last day bounce on after us. “Lotus don’t you have to go back to your mother and father?” I asked sweetly, and nodded my head towards the house we had just emerged from. Lotus shook her head, and gave a beaming smile. “Nope! Daddy said I should join you, and that he would talk to mom!”

“Rose?” I questioned, looking over to my steel ranger companion. She seemed to regard the green filly for a second, before looking back to me. “I think she should come, she probably has more experience with weapons than either of us,”

“Alright, you can come with us if your promise not to make as many jokes along the way,”
“Awww, but I thought they were funny!”

“I don’t think the “aren’t you glad I didn’t say banana” joke gets old after the second time,” I informed her, remembering on the way to the town the joke rant she had gone on. Somehow a filly in the wasteland knew exactly how that joke worked and the whole history about it. I was a normal citizen plus a fallout pony and I didn’t even know that. Once again it made me curious of how she knew so much for someone her age, but I discarded the thought for the time being. We had more important things to worry about, such as getting their.

I looked down on my pipbuck to see it had toggled the location of gallops walk, and was showing the fastest way to get their. I couldn’t wait till technology like this was in our world, because really it worked quite well. I only wondered how it always seemed to know before me. With a nod to Rosey we began to head off towards gallops walk, Lotus following right behind. How did she not get tired from bouncing so much, like seriously it was like the little filly had springs in her hooves.

As we walked the terrain stayed the same, sick looking trees and shrubbery dotting the usual rocky expanse of the wasteland. Despite my wishes it wasn’t long before Lotus began to try and entertain us with songs and jokes, much to our groans. “Knock knock?” she chirped at one point. I sighed, then responded, “who’s there?”

“A raider,” she answered, and I blinked a bit surprised. All her jokes so far had been light hearted with no mention of the wasteland or war. “A raider who?”

“A raider who wants to raid all the balloons in the equestrian wasteland and make all the others raiders fly away,” she responded, and gave an attempt at an evil laugh. I chuckled, and Rosey down right laughed. “How many balloons are there even in the wasteland,” Rosey said when she finally finished laughing. I looked over to her with wide eyes, so wide my reptilian pupils were small and crazy looking. “So many,” I emphasised, and Lotus followed up with, “So very many!”

“But that's not proper language,” she protested, and I smiled evilly. “So very many that all the balloons are scattered around the wastes like chickens running around in a chicken,” I said, and she groaned, stopping to sit down and put her head into her hooves. “You two are making no sense!”

“What is this sense you speak of?” Lotus woahed, and I gaped at Rosey like an idiot. “Is sense something you eat?”

“No!” she shouted, before sighing and settled for complaining, “my brain hurts now,”

“Sorry Rose,” I teased, before Lotus and I burst out laughing, soon joined in by Rosey’s chuckles. The laughter seemed to lighten the dark and dreary around us, and make everything a little better. That air of content stuck around for a bit as we got back on the move, continuing on to go to gallops walk. As we continued to walk, my eyes caught onto the sight of a strange building in the distance, covered in shadows making the stone look like black crystal. “Hey Rosey, lets take a quick detour,”I said, and changed course to head for the strange building. After a pause, I heard the sound of hoofsteps following, and before long the three of us were walking, or in Lotus’s case bouncing, towards the strange building outlined in the gloom.

As we neared, I felt a strange tingling feeling running up and down my back, my nerves feeling alive and active. As we got closer the building appeared too look something like an farm house, the walls made out of a dark colored wood that seemed to be barely staying together. In the space beside the barn where a fence might go, instead there were pieces of bone and wood scattered around. An involuntary shiver went down my body, and I focused on not being creeped out. The hanging pony from the tree was completely na- wait what?

My head whipped to the side as I noticed the Sea blue colored buck hanging from a nearby tree, a noose tied around his neck. Bits of him were missing from his corpse, seeming to have been taking from carrion eaters, but most of the body remained, including one eye, bloodied and wide with a look of surprise forever caught in his gaze. A beep on my EFS informed me we had reached an applewood barn, but other than that there was no other description. Lotus had stopped bouncing beside us, and was now walking with us, her eyes locked on the sight of the dangling corpse as well.

“I-I think he was lynched,” rosey said quietly, and with another look at the horrified look on the ponies face I suspected so. I looked around slowly to see the other trees in the area also had hanging ponies to accompany them. My head snapped around towards the barn as a high pitched giggle sounded from inside, as well as the sound of crunching bone. I flinched at the sound, and Rosey seemed downright horrified at the sight of the hanging ponies. On the other hand Lotus’s face was a cool mask, the only thing betraying her fear was the shine of her eyes as she looked everything over. “This is raider work, if I’ve ever seen it this is it,” Lotus said softly. I looked over at her, and noticed the same shine in her eyes was becoming wetter.

Okay, I drew the line at a crying filly. I growled, feeling the gills on the sides of my neck flare and the bracelets around my hooves whine. Rosey looked over at me, seeming a bit worried. I turned my head towards hers to meet her gaze, and gave a small predatory smile. “You two stay here, I need to have a little chat with these ponies,”

“Alright, just be careful,” Rosey warned, and I nodded. I gently nudged Lotus with my side, and she looked over to me, the wetness in her eyes threatening to come out. “I’m going to deal with them, don’t cry little filly,” I whispered softly, laying my head on hers for a second, making sure not to accidentally poke myself with her horn. “Alright, thank you Onyx,” she whispered back, her voice sounding older than her age would suggest, and I slowly turned my attention back to the barn looming in front of us, and slowly began to head in. This was not going to be something they would get away with.

The door to the barn opened with a creak, and insane giggling sounded from inside, noting the existence of a raider down the hall. As I had with the magical surge, I imagined the anger boiling in my veins flowing down into the bracelets that were attached to my hooves. The same burning feeling began to happen, but unlike last time I imagined the energy flowing out directly, and watched as the gems each glowed and a whistling sound began to come from my hooves. Soon the air around my hooves was shimmering with compressed and condensed sound, and I slowly raised one of my hooves off the ground, imaging the invisible blob of energy forming into claws. As I watched, the shimmering blob around my hoofs slowly turned into three razor sharp claws of pure energy sound, and soon did the same to the other hoof.

The giggling only seemed to increase as I walked on, the sound of crunching bone slowly loudening as I got closer to the source. I turned around a corner to find a family of raiders, two fillies and their father all sitting around a table, another dead pony in the middle. As they turned their black pinpricks of pupils towards me, their bloody mouths stretching into smiles to reveal their teeth stained with red, both new and old, I smiled back. “Did some raider order delivery~”

The father launched himself at me, giggling as he rocket towards me on bloody hooves. My smile turned deadly as I slashed my hoof up to meet him. I watched as my hoof simply waved in front of his face. At least that's what it seemed to do, before he let out a last choking giggle, having jumped right into the sounded claws of energy reaching from my hoof, digging into his skull in neck. Crimson slowly flowed from the wounds, traveling down the condensed sound as if it was made of solid steel. What I hadn’t noticed is that while my attention had been on the father one of the fillies had launched themselves at me, taking a bite at my back leg.

I let out a yell of pain, before switching my hooves, dragging the father under my hoof as the other flew back to claw at the head of the raider filly, sinking in with a wet crunch. I panted softly, catching my breath as the last filly prepared her own attack. It was just then that my concentration decided to slip, the noise claws that had been wedged into the two dead raiders disappearing along with my concentration, the filly falling onto her side and the father’s wounds now bleeding freely without something blocking the exit for the blood. It just so happened that was also the time the last filly decided to attack, leaping for my face with her mouth wide.

Thinking fast I flopped onto my back, and the filly instead of smashing into my face with her teeth landed ontop of me, giggling hysterically. Her head snapped down towards me and she lunged forward again, her jaws opening wide to take a bit out of my face. Sadly for her though my hoofs stopped her an inch from my face, struggling against the strength of the insane filly. I began to try and concentrate, imagining the claws forming again as the filly continued to snap at my face, thin lines of crimson beginning to appear on her neck where my claws were starting to form.

With a final cry I put all my strength into flipping me and the filly forwards, my body landing on top of hers just as my claws fully formed, plunging into the throat of the filly. She struggled, continuing to giggle madly as blood leaked from her mouth as the life leaked out from her as well. “This is going to be gross,” I grumbled, then closed my eyes tight and pulled my hooves each in a different direction, hearing a wet ripping sound as the filly’s head was disconnected from her neck and spinal column.

The claws vanished again, and slowly, pain emitting from the bite in my leg, headed towards the door, leaving the now dead raider family behind. I hoped that with the death of these sick and insane ponies that I had somehow avenged the deaths of the lynched ponies outside.

New skill unlocked: Sound claws, you can now channel the power of sound into lethal blades that are as effective as cold steel