Fallout Equestria: Dracony Chronicles

Lazuli sighed.

Pearl was sitting beside her on the bed, while the Dracony’s hoof gently stroked her back. Lazuli couldn’t help but feel calmer when the filly was around – she cared very little about her apparent differences. For all she cared, Pearl was a filly, plain and simple. She deserved the same level of respect, too.

“Lazuli?” Pearl laid herself down next to the mare, looking up at her with one wide and curious eye and another that was still cracked and flickering. They couldn’t fix it, they said, for fear of damaging vital parts of her. Pearl took that to mean she needed an eyepatch, and was determined to find one.

Slowly, she turned her head to face Pearl properly. “Mmmhm?” She smiled softly, hugging Pearl closer.

“Um…” The filly looked like she wasn’t quite sure how to phrase what she wanted to say. “You…you were around before the war, right?” She asked.

“Yep.”

“And…um…” Pearl nervously tapped her hooves together. “Were there…any robot ponies, like me?”

Lazuli paused, then shifted a bit to better face the inquisitive synthetic. “Well…no, there weren’t. At least not that I ever saw. But honestly…” She suppressed a giggle. “You’re so much like a regular pony, I dunno if I could tell the difference!”

Pearl stayed quiet for a moment. “So…I’m not like…super…different?”

“No, you’re not. I thought I told you about this already, Pearl. Just forget about it.” Lazuli ruffled the unicorn’s hair, earning a cute giggle from her.

Then the door slid open. Crystal Harmony came in first, with a neutral expression on her face. Tempest followed her closely, her metal hooves clanking against the tile and her whole body shifting with metallic and mechanical noises. “Afternoon, Laz.” Tempest said with as much of a smile as her current form allowed. She was given an ear-to-ear smile by Pearl, and a smirk from Lazuli.

“Hi, Miss Tempest!” Pearl chirped, her previous existential doubt seemingly forgotten as she sat up and beamed.

“And hello, Pearl.” Tempest nodded. “Er, Pearl, I need to talk to Lazuli in private for a bit. Is that okay?”

Lazuli was surprised – she had seen Tempest interact with Pearl a few times, but she was surprisingly good with foals. Pearl had no qualms about giving the two some time alone, and hopped off the bed. She glanced back at Lazuli, who gave her a curt nod. That was all she needed to skip happily out of the room, leaving Crystal, Tempest and Lazuli alone.

Tempest watched her leave with a smile. “She’s really cute, isn’t she?” She turned her head to Lazuli. “I know I was kind of harsh about her before, but…she’s growing on me.”

“Yeah.” Lazuli nodded, leaning back against the wall and sighing. “So, what’s this about? What deadly disease do I have?”

Tempest rolled her eyes. “It’s nothing like that. Er…Crystal? I think you can leave us as well.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Crystal nodded her head and quickly strode out of the room. When the door slid shut, Tempest sat down and placed her front hooves on the bed.

Lazuli found her ears folding back slightly at the way Tempest stared at her. The metal unicorn’s face wasn’t nearly as expressive as a normal pony’s, but it was expressive enough to tell her that she wasn’t happy. “Er…what’s wrong, Temp?”

“We found something on your wings, Lazuli.” Tempest said softly, her camera-like eyes focused right on Lazuli’s. “Something that worries me.”

“…Uh…metal…?” Lazuli offered, but her response was met with an artificial snort.

Tempest didn’t look amused. She reached out, taking hold of one of Lazuli’s wings and gently spreading it open. “Care to tell me why your wings say…” She gently placed her hoof on the bottom of the wing, where the logo of the GOM was quite visible. The image of a zebra mare’s head from the side was emblazoned above the three letters. “This?”

“…I…” Lazuli swallowed. “Temp, that’s not what you think. You know me.”

“Then explain, please, because I don’t want to believe it as I see it either.” Tempest sat back, letting Lazuli fold up her wing again.

Lazuli leaned forward, her wings unfurling and wiggling a bit. “Well…you know that my wings really didn’t work properly after uh…my accident, and all.” She said with a sheepish grin. “They were barely good for gliding, and even that was painful. So…when a zebra comes up to you and tells you that she’s got a whole lab where she can take the broken wings out and give you something better…” She curled one wing in front of her, gently rubbing it with a hoof. “It’s kind of hard to not at least be interested.”

“But you didn’t work for her? She just gave you wings and you left?” Tempest raised a mechanical eyebrow.

Lazuli fell silent, her eyes darting from Tempest’s down to the bed, then her wing, then the wall. “I…I uh…”

“Lazuli.” Tempest’s voice grew more stern.

“I-I…o-okay, well…” Lazuli started wringing her hooves against the sheets. Why am I so shaky? Just…tell her. She told herself, but her words wouldn’t come out properly. “I-I had…there…sh-she was…I had this…um…”

“Lazuli.” Tempest’s voice was darker, her metallic teeth clenching together. “I’m not going to be angry. I’m getting angry because you’re not telling me.”

A few seconds of nervous silence were held between them. “I…” Lazuli started, then sighed. “Alright, fine. I was Ayize’s hitmare. Happy?” She crossed her arms in defiance, but at the same time desperately hoped that Tempest wasn’t angry.

“…Uh huh.” Tempest shut her eyes for a second. “And how long was this going on for?”

“About…two years.” Lazuli snorted. “Terrible.”

“What was terrible?” Tempest leaned in slightly.

“Me.”

“…You?”

“Yeah. Me.”

Tempest’s head tilted to the side. “What makes it so terrible…?”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Lazuli’s mane nearly spiked up, her head angrily turning to Tempest. “I was a hitmare. For a zebra that didn’t care about anypony but herself. Didn’t care about anything except her inventions. Didn’t give a damn about me, even. I let myself get used by a criminal just so I could feel like I fit in somewhere.”

“…Laz…” Tempest winced.

“No, see, this-“ Lazuli growled, her teeth gritting together. “You acted all angry, and now you’re gonna tell me I’m fine?” She started to sit up, her wings clicking and bending in ways they probably shouldn’t have.

“Laz, you need to lay down.”

“You-“ Lazuli pushed the blankets off of herself. “You think- you think this is okay?” She started to push her hind legs off the bed, but was overcome with a wave of nausea.

Tempest reached up and put a hoof on Lazuli’s chest. “Laz. Stop.”

“You…y-you’re only…saying it’s okay…because we’re friends. If I was any other mare you’d despise me.”

“Lazuli, you need to rest.”

“Y-you’re not even…saying no…” Lazuli said weakly, suddenly struck by how tired she was from just that bit of movement. The back of her head throbbed.

“Lazuli. Listen.” She gently pushed the Dracony back down onto the bed, starting to pull the covers over her. “I’m not about to say that I’m particularly happy, but I can’t exactly blame you either. I’d probably have ended up doing the same, or something similar, if I hadn’t been trapped in a computer…”

Lazuli had tears welling up in her eyes. “I-I…I killed…s-so many ponies…”

“Hey.” Tempest shook Lazuli as gently as she could without hurting her more. “Listen. This isn’t the time to talk about this, clearly. I just wanted to know that you weren’t…you know…” She trailed off, as if not wanting to finish her sentence.

“Th-that I wasn’t what…?” Lazuli mumbled weakly, her jaw clenched tightly and her eyes shut.

“…We’ll talk about this later. I promise.” Tempest pushed herself up. “You need rest, for now.”

Tempest looked down at Lazuli. Lazuli couldn’t bear to look up at Tempest. Both of them hated to leave it like this, but both of them knew it wasn’t going to get anywhere otherwise.

The heavy metal clanging of robotic hooves against tile slowly grew further from Lazuli until the door slid shut, blocking out the noise almost entirely. Lazuli curled up in a tight ball, holding her tail up to her face like a stuffed animal and covering herself with the blankets.