Fallout Equestria: Dracony Chronicles

Whrrrr.

Clang.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Lazuli’s tail impatiently swished back and forth, her eyes glued firmly to the grey wall in front of her. She could hear the sounds of machinery working behind her, and feel the gentle tug against her back whenever the new contraptions attached to her body moved.

“Hm…they work well enough.” A voice said from behind her, and a hoof – a cold, obviously artificial hoof – pressed down on her back. “Lie down.”

“How long is this going to be?” Lazuli snarled, but still obeyed and laid herself down on her stomach.

The voice – a mare – simply chuckled, and Lazuli felt something cold press against her spine. “Calm down. I operated on you for five hours, you rested for two weeks and now you’re complaining about time?”

Lazuli winced as the cold sensation moved higher up. “Hm.” The voice murmured. “Your body’s adapted way faster to the prosthetics than I thought. You Draconies are just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“You say that as if you’ve seen one before.” Lazuli snorted.

“Well, I haven’t! This is cool shit.” The voice snickered, continuing to do…whatever she was doing to Lazuli’s back. “You’re still not looking, right?”

“Mmhm.” Lazuli’s eyes rolled. “You know, I can handle blood or whatever it is back there.”

“Mmm, nah, I like you enough, so I’m telling you not to look. It’s kinda horrifying right now, but I’ll just patch it up in a minute.”

Lazuli blinked, her head turning slightly. “Patch it up? But you said you were done with-“ She started, but felt something jab her in the side. She yelped softly, her head turning to look back, but almost immediately she was overcome with a wave of exhaustion, and her head flopped to the ground.

The curtains to her room ruffled slightly. Second time in three minutes, she thought to herself. Two more before five minutes and I get t- uh, what rule did I make for myself again? Her confusion simply led to her looking away and staring at the door, as if she expected somepony to come in at that second.

Lazuli was only off by about a minute in that regard. She was about to look away when the door slid open, revealing the gleaming metal form of Tempest.

Fuck. She thought to herself. It had been two days since she spoke to Tempest about her time in the GOM, and she wasn’t looking forward to the follow-up.

“Hey.” Tempest stepped into the room, letting the door slide shut behind her. The heavy metal thumps of her hooves hitting the tile echoed through the small space, and she took a seat next to the bed as soon as she reached it.

“…Hey.” Lazuli replied, not sure what else she could say.

“Feeling any better?” Tempest slowly smiled, as much as her robotic form would allow.

“…Yeah, a bit.” The Dracony shuffled slightly. “Why?”

“What do you mean, why? I’m making sure you’re okay.” The metal pony – who was as real as any other, in Laz’s opinion, if not more – leaned against the bed.

Lazuli snorted. “Don’t act like you aren’t still angry. You don’t have to lie to make me feel better.”

“Laz…” Tempest raised a hoof.

“I get it. We’re friends. But…I’ve done terrible stuff, and you’ve done nothing but be nice and try to help ponies in the Wasteland.” Lazuli turned away from Tempest, pulling the blankets up to cover everything but her head.

“Laz, I’m not angry.” Tempest affirmed.

“Well maybe you should be.”

“But I’m not.”

“I dunno, then. I guess I’m just…” Lazuli realized she had no idea where she was taking the sentence, so she ended it with a “Mrph”.

Tempest briefly paused to think about how to word what she wanted to say. “Alright.” She leaned forward, placing both front hooves on the bed. “Lazuli, here’s the thing. You’re getting angry at yourself, and that’s fine. I’m not gonna say I approve of what you did, but I’m also not going to say it was something I could never forgive you for. I already have.”

“I killed innocent ponies.”

“You did that before the war too, Laz. If anything you were less ethical back then, and I was fine with it after you gave it up. I’m not going to hold a grudge or act like I understand what you went through and judge you for it.”

Lazuli’s eyes widened slightly, but Tempest wasn’t able to see it. Her hooves tightened around the blankets. “I…”

Tempest’s head tilted to the side, a metallic imitation of a frown crossing her lips. “What’s wrong?”

Lazuli shook her head. “I’m…sorry. I just…gods, I must look a mess…” She hugged the blankets closer to her body.

“You look better than before.” Tempest placed a hoof on Lazuli’s shoulder and gently rubbed up and down. “Listen. I don’t blame you, okay? I don’t think anyone does. If anything, it just makes me think even better of you, knowing you actually got away from that…madmare.”

The Dracony sighed. “Yeah, but…mmgh…”

“No buts, okay? No hard feelings, nothing to worry about.” Tempest reassured her.

Slowly, the mare in the bed rolled over, managing to force a smile under her teary eyes. “I don’t deserve you, Tempest.”

“Well, you’ve already paid more than enough to earn me.” Tempest snickered, a sound that reverberated so heavily in her metallic chassis that Lazuli almost didn’t recognize it as laughter.

Lazuli managed a small snrk, then gently leaned in and pressed her forehead against Tempest’s chest. “I love you, you know that?”

“It’s hard not to love you, too.” Tempest ran her hoof through Lauzli’s mane. The feeling of cold metal against her head should have been unpleasant…but Lazuli couldn’t think of a better one, really.

The two of them sat there together. Lazuli occasionally shifted her head a bit, but for the most part she kept herself pressed against Tempest.

“Alright.” Tempest said finally, after an amount of time that could have been anywhere between thirty seconds and an hour, as far as Lazuli was concerned. “I’ve got a few things I need to do, and this metal body doesn’t feel…natural, yet. Don’t worry, I’ll be back to visit soon.” Tempest started to pull back, then paused. “…and, Lazuli, we’re good, right?”

Lazuli stared for a few seconds, then slowly nodded her head. “…Yeah, we’re good.”

“Good.” Tempest gave Laz a gentle nudge on the shoulder and stood up, turning away and trotting towards the door.

It was bright out.

That was Lazuli’s first inclination that she was in a dream. She hadn’t seen the sun in almost two centuries, there was no reason she could now.

She could also feel her wings. Giving them a small wiggle, she looked back to see that her brilliant, translucent blue limbs were still attached, not replaced with the ugly hunks of metal she had now.

In earlier years she might have openly called out to see if Luna was the one influencing her dreams – but as it was now, she knew the princess wasn’t around.

Her mind only seemed to properly form the landscape when she became aware of it. She had stopped dreaming of beautiful landscapes for some time now – well, she supposed that some landscapes in the Wasteland could be beautiful, but only ever with sinister undertones. It didn’t matter now, as she found herself sitting on the edge of a cliff overlooking a swirling sea of pitch-black darkness that seemed to suck in all light and never let it back out.

And yet, the sun was still shining.

She stayed silent, since she knew there wouldn’t be anypony to answer her even if she did speak. She just allowed herself to stare into the darkness, a blank expression on her face. “Why does my mind even bother…” She murmured, shaking her head.

“Perhaps,” A voice came from behind her, causing her to jolt her head upright and look over her shoulder. “Because it is trying to tell you something?”

As her eyes alighted upon the figure speaking to her, she found herself unable to focus on it. That is, until it came closer.

She cursed her mind even further when the figure revealed itself to be a Dracony. It was like her brain was actively trying to hurt her. The Dracony, based on its voice, was male, and his coat was brilliantly white. His mane, however, was a bright silver mixed with a much darker grey, the lighter of the two matching his eyes and his wings.

Lazuli rose from her seated position. “Okay, so what lesson are you gonna try to teach me then?”

“I’m not here to teach lessons.” The Dracony replied. He tilted his head to the side. “You…are still alive, right?”

“…I…what?” Lazuli felt something well up in her chest at the implication that there was a chance she wasn’t alive. “I…yes, I am?”

“You sound uncertain.” He blinked twice, then took a few steps toward her. “This is not how you would appear in the waking world, is it, Lazuli?”

She scoffed, looking away from him. “You already know the answer to that, you’re in my dream.”

“And how do you know you aren’t in mine, Lazuli?” He responded, stopping a few feet from her.

“Yeah, okay, I get it, reality’s fucked.” She snorted.

“Awfully blunt of you, but that isn’t my point.”

“Do you have one, then?”

“I do.”

Lazuli stared at him. “Okay, and what is it, then?” Her tail flicked impatiently behind her.

“Humour me for a moment. What would you say if the whole world you lived in right now was a dream?”

“…I don’t know. Depends. How far back?”

“Let’s say two hundred years. Before the war.”

“…Okay…I’d probably break down and start hugging Tempest until my muscles gave out, I guess.”

“So, you had a loved one then.”

She blinked once, then twice. “I…yeah? How do you not know- ugh, I’m not even gonna try to decipher these dreams anymore.” She turned away from him completely, lying down on the edge of the cliff and staring out into the expanse of nothingness.

“Lazuli, what if I told you that I, right now, exist in the same world you do?” He asked, an eyebrow raising, though she couldn’t see it.

“I’d say great, now leave me alone.”

“You would care nothing for the survival of your species?”

Lazuli’s ears twitched. “Don’t mess with me like this today, please.” She laid her head down on her hooves.

“I’m not messing with anything.” The stallion shifted forward. “It is a genuine question.”

“Is it really? Because it seems like my mind is trying to trick me into feeling bad about something that I didn’t have any control over.” She snapped, shooting him an angry glare over her shoulder. Even when the brief image of her mother – and her kind, smiling visage – appeared, she avoided feeling anything. It had been used in dozens of her dreams by now, and she had grown to be wholly uncaring.

The stallion inhaled deeply, then sighed. “So you wouldn’t believe me, then?” He asked.

“Nope.” She snorted again. “Because if you were telling the truth, you’d come to me in real life, not in dreams.”

“If I came to you in real life, I would be abandoning the remnants of Bellephron.”

“Yeah well Bellephron can go f-…” Lazuli lifted her head slightly, her pupils shrinking as she stared blankly into the distance. “…Are you serious?” She gently glanced over her shoulder.

The figure was gone. The Dracony who had tried so hard to reach her was nothing but a wisp in the wind that no longer blew through the landscape of her dreams.

When her eyes opened, they briefly flashed a shimmering blue colour. Her head darted from side to side, looking around frantically for a pony who was not there, and likely never had been.

The sound she made was something in between a sob and a cough, but she cut it off before it could become anything more.

When she closed her eyes again, her sleep was dreamless.