Fallout Equestria: Killing with Kindness

Fluttershy again paused her tale, needing a drink, and Syntax fetched her a glass of water before settling down in her chair. While she drank, Syntax's eyes landed on an array of colorful photos on the wall. Images of happier times. She saw the Mane Six together as they had once been, carefree and oh so close. There were pictures at the spa, at Sweet Apple Acres, at what once was Sugarcube Corner, and various other places.

"We were so happy once." Fluttershy said sadly. "It was an easier and more pleasant time then, before any major war or disastrous Equestria-wide disasters. We even held on to some of that happiness together after the war came. But then there was a day where we just all fell apart. Twilight and Pinkie had that falling out, and it just...took the life from the rest of us. It would have been so much better if we had just done what Princess Celestia wanted and stayed out of the front lines. But we were Ministry Mares, and dedicated to our causes. How I miss those carefree days. I want them again, Syntax. I want to experience just one more day with all my dear friends, like we used to do so long ago. I know it's not possible, but, I just want it."

Syntax felt tears threatening. There was so much pain in Fluttershy's eyes. She wished she knew how to ease it. The pegasus sighed in misery.

"That killing joke should have simply just ended me. But instead it made sure I would suffer a fate far worse than death. You know what's worse than death, Syntax?"

Syntax shook her head.

"Watching while multitudes of lives are cruelly ripped to shreds and exterminated. Watching while the terrors that hold you captive lure victims in and viciously torture and murder them in front of you, dying you red with every spray of their blood. Watching while ponies brutally slaughter other ponies, leaving them to rot. And knowing all the while that it was you who made it possible."

Syntax felt like throwing up. How could something be so evil, so vile, as to make this sensitive soul watch such destruction?

"It became a sight I was used to." Fluttershy murmured. "But being used to seeing it did not make the pain any less intense."

Trapped in the cruel prison, Fluttershy could not move, speak or do anything but observe. She still had sight and hearing. The calculated brutality of the plants that surrounded her was sickening and heart breaking. Watching while the world was turned desolate and practically uninhabitable was bad enough. But then they lured in other victims.

She was watching in agony when they lured in a young mare. She tried to warn her.

Keep away! Keep away!

But to no avail. Her warning was but a whisper on the wind, and the helpless mare was dragged into the killing joke, it's tendrils wrapping around her, tightening down horribly, effectively carving her body to pieces while she screamed in agony. Her blood sprayed out freely, coating the base of the yellow tree and soaking the ground beneath it.

And all Fluttershy could do was internally weep in anguish. The horrid tendrils completely dissected the mare's body, and then finally flung her bloody remains aside. They then wrapped higher around the tree, leaving lines of crimson on the pastel colored trunk.

Fluttershy was begging for death, anything to avoid continuously watching the bloody massacres of the innocent in front of her, yet it did no good. Some of the helpless victims were foals, and these the tendrils took particular delight in torturing. Over time the soil was nearly black from the blood shed there, and streaks of darkening red lined the trunk. One thing was certain: the killing joke was never going to stop making her suffer as long as she was in it's power.

Syntax was struggling to swallow the bile that kept rising in her throat as the graphic story continued. She didn't want to even think about having to go through this kind of gruesome horror. The fact that the killing joke had deliberated tormented Fluttershy by murdering countless victims in front of her through the decades was sickening.

How Fluttershy had even come out of it anywhere near sane was beyond her understanding. Watching such things would have robbed her of her sanity within a day. Yet Fluttershy had endured for two centuries.

"I suppose in a way it was fitting." Fluttershy said. "I did contribute to the desolation, so my punishment was fairly just."

"Nopony deserves that." Syntax managed. "Nopony should be forced to watch while all they love and know is ruthlessly destroyed and ponies are ripped into bloody shreds in front of them. I don't care what part they played in it, nopony ever deserves that."

Fluttershy's eyes met hers.

"That's not what I told myself."

Day in and day out, the terrible sights just kept coming. Fluttershy was able to think clearly, even as a tree, and she did think.

I did this...it's my fault. I should never have given the megaspells to the zebras. I just wanted to stop the war but instead it's much worse. It's oh so much worse.

And she cried bitterly. Internally she was screaming and sobbing as her heart bled at what had become of the land she had once loved. Her inward agony made itself known outwardly by creaking branches and drooping pink leaves.

As usual her turmoil was interrupted by the arrival of yet another unlucky pony. Again she tried to warn him. Again it failed. Again she was forced to watch the panicked victim emit screams of terror as the tendrils that held him fast ripped into his flesh, exposing muscle and bone. Blood sprurted forth like a scarlet fountain, drenching the killing joke's other helpless victim as she watched, silently weeping.

His blood soaked remains joined those of other ponies, and by nightfall he would be fully consumed by the murderous and cannibalistic plants. Fluttershy's heart bled further, agony increasing more. She longed for death to take her but sadly, that was not an option. The killing joke saw to that. It kept her alive even as it mercilessly continued it's slaughter of others.

Her vision once more on the desolate lands around her, she continued her forced vigil, never missing even the most gruesome of sights...though she desperately wanted to. But gradually she came to accept this as punishment, as a justified course of action to make her pay for her sins.

To make her pay for single-hoofedly handing the enemy the weapon to kill them all with, all in what she should have known beforehoof was a lost cause to end the war. In reality, even if she watched the horrors around her for eternity, it was not nearly enough to atone for this.

Nothing would ever be enough for that.