Fallout Equestria: Dracony Chronicles

Lazuli remembered a time when the sun would rise in the morning. A time where she could look out a window and smile, watching the bright yellow orb of warmth and light illuminate the landscape, controlled by the princess of the sun herself. Celestia, she came to realize, had been a good ruler – a good leader. Her flaws were ones that Lazuli couldn’t really overlook, but she held no negative feelings towards her…especially now.

The sun no longer shone, or at least, not in the way it used to. A dense layer of clouds covered Equestria indefinitely, allowing enough light during the day to light up the surface, but nothing more. Lazuli sometimes wondered who controlled the sun now that the princesses were gone – it surely didn’t move on its own, but no one in the Wasteland knew the answer, and many simply believed the goddesses controlled the sun and moon from beyond the physical plane. Lazuli doubted it, but at this point it mattered very little to her.

As she stretched herself out and pushed the blankets off of herself, she inhaled deeply and sat up in the wooden cot she had been sleeping in.

Lazuli did not look like a normal pony, because she wasn’t one. Her fur was pure white, her mane a mixture of two tones of blue – one dark, one nearing turquoise. The most notable feature about her was her tail, which was long, prehensile and tipped with a sharp spade at the end. The spade itself was flexible and wobbly, and only lethal when she attached a weapon to it…or if she struck the right place.

About two centuries ago, she would have had a pair of glamourous wings jutting out from her sides, but the translucent appendages were now replaced by ugly (albeit effective) metal contraptions that mimicked the movements and function of her wings to the last muscle twitch, but of course…she couldn’t feel any of it. She had lost her wings a long time ago, though, so she had gotten more than used to it.

Her ears wiggled a bit, one of her hooves reaching up to rub at her eyes. Her right ear had a slight notch in it, running from the tip to about a quarter down the entire length. As she stood up, her muscles tensed and relaxed. She was still in shape, fairly toned without being overly muscular. Her bright blue eyes were less bright than they used to be, but still carried a sparkly lustre that refused to die even after so long.

As she stretched herself out, her tail bumped against the nightstand. Her home wasn’t much to speak of – it was a small cottage, not too far from where Manehatten had been…or…Lazuli was fairly sure that was where it was. She had lost track of geography over the course of the last two centuries or so, but she was decently sure her little cottage was somewhere near where Fetlock had once been.

Making sure nothing fell off of the nightstand, Lazuli trotted to the other side of the room and peeked out the window that had a grand old view of a concrete wall. Glancing down to the ground, she saw very little water left in the bucket she kept outside. No shower today, I guess. She thought to herself. Might need to get some more water…

Her eyes alighted upon her desk when she pulled her head back in. Sitting on the desk was a multitude of papers, scattered wildly across its surface. Some had writing on them, while others were blank.

On the top corner of the desk sat a radio, one equipped with a holotape player and…well…radio. On occasion she would tune into whatever local broadcasts she could find, but for the most part she simply used it to listen to tapes, either recorded by ponies who wanted to recruit her services or…for the one tape she always kept around.

She saw it there. In the middle of the desk, a dirty and somewhat chipped tape was sitting on top of all of the mess she had accumulated. It had been nearly five months since she last listened to it – she hadn’t the heart to subject herself to it, again…but she knew she had to.

She pulled her chair back, sitting down on it and reaching out. Her hoof felt like it was made of lead, falling short and landing right in front of the tape. I can’t. She thought to herself.

…but I have to anyway…Lazuli decided, picking up the tape and sliding it into the slot in the radio. She clapped it shut, taking a deep breath.

Her hoof hovered over the buttons on the radio, and she clenched her jaw before bringing it down. The ‘play’ button clicked gently and the radio crackled to life.

“Hey, Laz.” A voice came across, a mare’s, a bit static-y but still more than audible. “Um…listen. I know that I haven’t talked to you in a while. It’s…it’s been…how long, two months? I uh…yeah.”

A small pause lingered, then the voice spoke up again. “Sorry for not visiting. I’ve been…like…really busy here in Canterlot. The good news is I’m doing pretty well, it’s nothing too stressful or anything. I…do still miss you, though.” The mare cleared her throat. “Uh…I’m not great at this, I guess. I didn’t really rehearse before I recorded this, but I know you don’t like big rehearsed speeches anyway, heh.”

There was a bit of shuffling, and the creaking of a chair. “Yeah, I…well, I should get to the point of this. I’m recording this to say I’m sorry, Laz. I’ve been really tossing you to the side lately, and…I really am sorry. I’ve kind of been distracted, I guess, and that’s no excuse to treat you like garbage. I’m just sorry you failed the mental health test and all, or you could be up here with me…not that I’d imagine you’d want to be, eheh. Power armour is super uncomfortable. And…well…ponies here aren’t too friendly anymore. Not that they ever really were, but…yeah, this war is…um…yeah.” She coughed and cleared her throat.

Another few moments of silence. “I really am sorry. I don’t know how to properly say it. I…haven’t seen you in a while, but I promise the next chance I get I’ll come visit you in Ponyville, okay? And…I promise I won’t…” She paused, a bit of a sniffle coming from her. “I won’t uh…hit you…again. I-I don’t know what came over me there. I was just…it was…I was overwhelmed. There was so much going on, we hadn’t seen each other in weeks, and you were just…yelling so much, I…”

The sound of a tissue being pulled from a box was barely audible, but Lazuli could hear it. The mare on the other end blew her nose, clearing her throat. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to…get this emotional, but I really miss you. And I want this damn thing to be over. Like…I really do. I’m honestly sick of it all. If I could leave and come back to Ponyville with you, you know I would, but it’s too late for that.” The mare inhaled deeply, breathing out, and then back in. “I’m sorry. I really am. I should be able to visit you in a week or two, and when I do…I swear to Celestia, I’m gonna hug the fuck out of you, okay?”

The tape fell silent for a full ten seconds, then the mare sighed. “When this is over, I’m taking us both on a cruise, I swear.” Then there was the shifting of a chair again, the click of a button being pressed, and the tape ended.

Now the cottage was truly silent, as was Lazuli. She wondered, briefly, why she did this to herself – and realized after a few seconds that her tears were starting to wet the papers beneath her. She pushed herself away from the desk, inhaling sharply and wiping her eyes clean. Her teeth clamped around the tough fabric surface of the black combat suit sitting at the end of her bed, and she threw it over her back before stepping into the bathroom to at least try to clean herself up a bit.