Fallout Equestria: Crescent Ghoul

I blinked awake and looked around. I was in the ruins of a house with an unfamiliar pink mist lingering in the air. I rubbed my eyes with my hooves, and upon further inspection, determined that my glasses appeared to have been cracked and I seemed to be in what used to be a bedroom, but something about it seemed familiar. Where am I? I thought to myself. I looked around a bit, and then looked down in front of me. There was a bedside table, and on it was an old, dusty picture frame. I picked it up in my magic and looked at the photo, figuring it'd give me an idea of who used to live here. The photo appeared to be very old, but I was just able to make out two ponies standing next to each other. The color was faded, but I recognized who they were

“This is... this is me and my sister!” I exclaimed to no one, and then my eyes went wide in realization. That would mean this was my house. I stood there for a moment, my mind racing, and then I remembered what had happened. The missiles. The cloudy pink substance in the shield around the castle. That means the zebras actually attacked Canterlot, I thought in terror. Then my gaze returned to the picture. My sister! I dashed out of my house and towards my sister’s home.

I ran through the streets of Canterlot in a rush, getting more and more worried about my sister as I witnessed the dilapidated ruins of what was once a busy city. Distant pony shapes shuffled through the streets occasionally, but I didn’t have time to stop and ask what was going on or even get a good look at them. I needed to focus on finding my sister. Luckily she didn’t live too far away, and I arrived at her place without trouble. The whole house had crumbled, leaving only part of the walls and the door standing. Without even stopping, I ran through the doorway and looked around the abandoned house, calling out for my sister Morning Roast. It was after I looked down at what remained of the roof that I froze in place, staring. Lying under the rubble of the roof was a single adult unicorn skeleton.

I stared at the skeleton for what felt like an eternity, then something in my mind ticked, and I turned and ran. I felt like crying, but for some reason there were no tears. I just ran through the streets until I tumbled over something and landed on my chest. I laid there wanting to cry for the loss of my sister, when the object I stumbled over started growling and moving. I got up and looked at what it could have been, my eyes growing wide as I spotted what looked like a rotting pony corpse standing up and growling at me. It was just like those horror films you hear ponies talking about around Nightmare Night. I was looking at what I could only describe as a zombie pony. I let out a scream and started running again, this time out of fear. I ran straight for my house, the safest place I knew of. The walls had at least been intact for the most part.

Once I got inside and locked the door to keep that monster from getting in, I started thinking about what I’d seen so far. All the buildings showed signs of years of degradation, and the clean skeleton at my sister’s house certainly supported that theory, so I concluded that I must have been unconscious for several years. However, that didn’t explain how I’d gotten from the library to my house without knowing. I shook my head and decided to worry about that later. First, I needed to check myself for injuries. If I'd been out for several years, the blow from the roof must have done some sort of damage. I walked into the bathroom, looked into the mirror, and proceeded once more to scream.

My mane was thinned out a bit, but still looked ok. My face, however, was a different story. There were patches of my coat missing in some places, and part of my cheek was completely missing! I looked down at myself for the first time since waking up and felt sick. One of the sleeves of my sweater was completely torn off, and there was a large hole through that leg that showed muscle and even bone. There was also a large patch of skin missing from that hoof. I went to pull up the remaining sleeve of my sweater only to learn that it had somehow fused to me.

I, myself, was a zombie pony.

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After panicking for a good hour and trying to figure out how it was even possible to be in my condition without being in constant pain, I settled on some sort of necromancy. While that didn’t really help me explain exactly how I was a walking, ‘living’ corpse, it at least gave me something to look into. I took a bit of time to regain my composure, taking into consideration that I couldn’t really be a zombie, due solely to the fact that zombies were mindless. Then I went to the kitchen. It was probably a good idea to eat something. I checked the fridge and gagged at the rancid smell that burst out as I opened the door. Most of the food had gone bad, aside from some cakes that must have been pumped full of preservatives. I decided not to try one of them, and opted instead on some Sugar Apple Bombs from the cabinet. Surprisingly, they weren’t even that stale, and were still sweet. I only ate a little bit, as I wasn’t even really hungry, and then I levitated my bags over to me and stuffed the box in them. Then I grabbed the other cereals I had in my cabinets and put them in my bag as well. Then I set off to find another pony that might be able to tell me what happened while I was out. Obviously, the place I checked was the library.

At first, I thought it was empty of anypony, but after a bit I heard movement near the back. Following the sound past the many old and collapsed bookshelves covered in old and deteriorated books led me to a back room, where the door was ajar. I slowly opened the door and looked inside, and was surprised to find what looked like a zombie version of the librarian hunched over, surrounded by papers on the floor. “Hello?” I called out, and the corpse librarian moved. She turned and looked directly at me, and a chill ran up my spine. Her eyes were cold and empty, devoid of any sign of life. The librarian dashed at me and I swiftly retreated and closed the door, running away as fast as I could. With that, I decided it was time to leave Canterlot. It just seemed too dangerous here, especially since I didn’t know any proper offensive spells.